Editorially Trashing Angel

I read a story in the Peninsula Gateway written by one Paige Richmond, that must have slipped by the editor somehow, because it's bias against Jan Angel and for Kim Abel, is so obvious, it belongs on the editorial page — not the front page.

After reading the story, I'm convinced Richmond must have failed Journalism 101. Obviously, she doesn't know where to find PDC campaign contribution information, as every one of folks she interviewed favoring Abel, has a conflict of interest in the fact they are all campaign contributors — or else she intended the story to read exactly as it does.

Quoted in the story are Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown, Ray Garrido, and Port Orchard City Councilman Fred Chang — all Democrats.

Garrido is the husband of former Kitsap County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido, who Angel unseated, and then beat again as an incumbent. Now, with Angel out of the way, Garrido is running again. Chang is one of Abel's largest private (read, not a labor union) campaign contributors, donating $1,000 to her.

Brown, who can be abrasively partisan, also donated to Abel, and is quoted in the story as saying Abel was an “instrumental leader in securing money for education” who “has the experience” for a state representative position.

As the guy who will spend most of my first year in office cleaning up the huge mess she left as Mayor of Port Orchard, I have to take serious exception to that — unless Brown's idea of "experience" is micromanagement, and turning over experienced staff. While I've been beat up in some of the Kitsap Sun's blogs for making three replacements at City Hall, almost half of the City staff changed during Abel's administration — with extremely few retirements. The City Engineer/Public Works Director, Larry Curles, who had been there over 20 years, quit after less than 60 days working for Abel. Curles was out of work for only a matter of hours. The West Sound Utility District — which recognized the opportunity of a lifetime — hired him immediately.

It seems every time we peel back another layer of skin on the onion Abel left us, we find something else that either wasn't done, done correctly, followed up on, deadlines missed, or another project over budget due to lack of mayoral oversight.

One example is the Tremont Gateway Project. This was the top prioritized Kitsap project for PSRC funding, yet paperwork to secure $3.3 million was never followed up on, causing it to fall off of PSRC's funding list. And while we've gotten it back into the funding que, because of the delays that lack of follow up caused, the project is years behind schedule and has ballooned in cost from $9 million to an estimated $15 million.

Another example is the repaving of Bay Street, which is a state highway. Paperwork for this was never completed and returned to the state. Consequently, the City almost missed out, and if it wasn't for the intervention of Sen. Derek Kilmer with WSDOT, this may have only been a much abbreviated project, or not happened at all.

But perhaps the most negligent thing Abel is responsible for, is leaving office with the City's Comprehensive Plan almost four years out of compliance with the Growth Management Act (GMA). Her blatant violation of the GMA has locked the City out of literally millions of dollars of grant money it would otherwise be eligible to compete for.

Paige Richmond somehow managed to neglect mentioning any of this in her story, while allowing Josh Brown to completely distort Jan Angel's record while in office. In fact, she failed to even talk to anyone critical of Abel.

Brown goes on to trash Angel by saying, "Commissioner Angel’s record during her eight years has been one of deficit spending."

The truth here is that Angel has spent years on the losing side of numerous 2-1 votes after arguing against dipping into reserve funds to balance the County's budget. She was outvoted by Democrats Chris Endresen and Tim Botkin, as well as Endresen and Brown himself. If Angel is a deficit spender, so is Brown.

Brown continued his trash talking with, “She’s had no leadership when it came to higher education. And she’s been unable to deliver on big transportation projects, like corridors in Port Orchard."

Again, the real story here is that she was outvoted by the her fellow commissioners when they intentionally diverted millions away from funding Port Orchard's Bethel Corridor improvements to pay for that boondoggle reconfiguration of the Waaga Way interchange on Highway 3 (which is in Brown's district). Now, Brown wants the voters in Port Orchard to tax themselves to fund widening Bethel. They also outvoted Angel when they appropriated money for widening Highway 305, which also took money away from projects in Port Orchard.

Brown winds up his diatribe against Angel by saying, "The bottom line for choosing a candidate isn’t just about the amount of terms served in office — it’s the work done in those terms."

That statement is exceptionally lame, considering the Democrats have held the commission's majority for most of Angel's two terms in office — including conspiring to deny her the chairmanship when it was her turn — and intentionally blocking almost every initiative she's attempted to move forward. In spite of that, she's accomplished a great deal for the citizens of South Kitsap.

Obviously, the 27-year old Brown's political inexperience has led him to (perhaps unknowingly) break the unwritten rule that electeds stay above the fray and refrain from campaign rhetoric against other electeds.

However, the real "bottom line" here is that Jan Angel is a skilled leader who’s record proves she accomplished much more as County Commissioner than Kim Abel ever did as Mayor — and in my view is far more qualified to serve as our State Representative.

Political Correctness Defined

The following is the 2007 winning entry from an annual contest at Texas A&M University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term. 

This year's term was: Political Correctness 

The winner wrote: 

"Political Correctness" is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

I don't believe could have said it better myself...

I Knew There Was A Name For it...

There seems to be a new mental impairment sweeping the country that many are experiencing, although they may not realize it, or understand it.

It's called "Electile Dysfunction." It's defined as the inability to become aroused by the choice of presidential candidates being put forth by either political party for the 2008 election.

At this time, there is no known cure, but a half-hearted remedy is expected to arise by November.

AFA Changes Sprinter’s Name

This is one of those examples showing that perhaps computers have a little too much influence in our lives, and one that underscores our inability to anticipate unintended consequences...

From the Associated Press (AP), Washington, DC — The American Family Association sometimes suffers from its policy on re-editing AP news copy. Whenever an AP article uses the word "gay," the AFA's OneNewsNow replaces it with "homosexual." The AFA apparently uses auto-correct to do this. You can already guess where this is going.

Tyson Gay recently won the 100 meter race at the U. S. Olympic trials. The initial AFA report on this read (in part):

Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials...

Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth. Homosexual didn't get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: "A little fatigued."

Tyson Gay was identified correctly in updated versions of the story.

Copyright © 2008 by Associated Press.

The Airline Mess — Up Close and Personal

Because of the automotive writing I do, I travel somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 miles annually. So for me to say I recently had one of the worst travel experiences in all of my years, is saying something

My preferred airline over the years has always been Delta, and I'm a Delta Gold Medallion Level Frequent Flyer. I have been both a Delta customer — and stockholder — of both the "old" and "new" stock. That preference as always been based on the extreme level of customer service Delta has always provided — no matter what the situation. In my mind, Delta's people gave them a competitive edge, and even through all of the financial difficulties it experienced, I remained a loyal Delta flyer.

Not any more...

I was booked First Class from Seattle to Atlanta on June 29 on a 7:55 a.m. flight. I arrived at the ticket counter 50 minutes before my flight, and spent approximately 20 minutes as the "next" person in the First Class/Medallion line waiting to check one bag. While I waited, three people fooled around with the computer trying to resolve an issue for the person in front of me. No one else offered to wait on me. When I finally did get waited on, I was told my bag couldn't be accepted because I had missed the 30-minute window for baggage check. I asked the official time, and was told I had missed it by LESS THAN ONE MINUTE!

When I pointed out that I had been there in plenty of time, and missed this through no fault of my own, I was told, "We're sorry, there's nothing we can do." I asked about a gate check of my bag since it wasn't going to fit in an overhead bin, and couldn't be carried on, and was told that wouldn't be possible. When asking why not, the representative snapped, “Because it isn't."

Excuse me? This had been done for me several times previously, so why not now?

So asking, What do I do now?" I was told they could book me on the next flight, which was four hours later, but no First Class seats were available. There were First Class seats on the flight after that, but it didn't get in to Atlanta until almost midnight.

In trying to resolve the issue, I asked to see a supervisor. Although I physically could see her, it took almost 15 minutes of her joking around with other employees before she could be bothered to walk the 25 feet to see what my problem was. After telling her my story, and saying I believed I should be on my original flight. She just said, "Sorry, that's not going to happen. What do you want to do? Are you going to take the next flight we have or not, because I don't have time to waste on you."

What struck me right between the eyes at that very moment was how absolutely RUDE every single person I dealt with was. The "old" Delta people would have figured out some way for me to get on my original flight. These folks could care less if I ever got on any flight — or if I ever fly Delta again.

I elected to take the next flight, which left 4 hours later, sitting in Row 37 instead of 3. While I was not happy with the situation, or the attitude of the people I was dealing with, I had little choice since I also had a 4-hour drive ahead of me after leaving Atlanta, and getting there at 7 p.m. was better than midnight.

When I asked about a refund of the difference in fares, I was told none would be forthcoming. I made an issue of this and finally was granted a refund of somewhere near $300. But if I hadn't insisted on it in such a strong manner, that wouldn't have happened.

However, as luck would have it, taking the second flight — the one with a First Class seat available — might have had a better outcome. Upon approaching Atlanta, we were told there was a weather problem and we circled for approximately an hour until we became short on fuel and were diverted to Huntsville, Alabama.

Now I understand weather is beyond Delta’s control. However, the completely unacceptable situation at Huntsville wasn't. Upon our arrival, we sat on the tarmac for well over an hour. It was hot, and the passengers were not asked if they wanted any water once we were on the ground. No information on our situation was forthcoming from the cockpit either. The Captain finally came on the intercom and informed us that there were no gates available, and even if there were, they couldn't accommodate our particular aircraft.

Didn't anyone think about this BEFORE sending us to Huntsville? DUH!!!

Long story short, we finally got fueled and on our way almost 3 hours after we got there.

Upon arriving in Atlanta at somewhere near 11:30 p.m., we were told our luggage would take approximately an hour to arrive. It never did get listed on the board in baggage claim telling us what carousel it would be on. It was almost 1 a.m. by the time I got my bag.

All this aggravation over less than one minute in Seattle.

But it gets worse. I felt very strongly that it would be unsafe for me to begin a 4-hour drive at 1 a.m., after getting up at 4 a.m. the previous day to embark on this fiasco.

I called Delta Special Member Services and said I believed Delta should provide a hotel room for me — something they had done several times previously over the years in similar situations. The representative laughed out loud. She told me to go to Customer Service at the airport and take it up with them. When I went past the desk in the concourse, there were approximately 200 (no exaggeration) people in line, and I was already in Baggage Claim when were talking, which would have meant trying to go through security with no valid boarding pass. I know better than that.

I asked her to call and see what could be done. She refused, saying there was no way for her to reach anyone in the airport. I know this was a lie, as it has been done for me in the past. I asked what would happen if I got in my car and got in an accident. She said, “I guess you’ll just have to sue us.”

After almost 20 minutes, she apparently got tired of talking to me and just hung up. However, she did suggest I get a room and turn the cost in for a reimbursement. I did so, and that was rejected in a very condescending, cut and paste response from a Jerry P. Brown, from a department — that I can only think must be an inside joke — called "Customer Care."

So here I am, in Atlanta, at 1 a.m., tired, hungry, highly annoyed, with a 4-hour drive ahead of me, and getting absolutely NO satisfaction out of Delta, but a LOT of rudeness and attitude — which began at a little after 7 the previous morning.

The return trip was almost as bad — but not quite — 2+ hour delay in Atlanta. While a weather-related delay is understandable and is one of those things beyond Delta's control, again, the rude treatment the customers received is not.

We could not get the Delta personnel at the gate to give us a reason for the delay or any kind of expected departure time. They just kept extending it on the board behind the desk, but didn't even bother to update the screen above the boarding line. When asked what was going to happen and why things were like they were, the woman manning the desk simply ignored us as if we weren't even there.

At one point, she did make some kind of an announcement, but it was competing with another announcement being made in the concourse, so no one could understand what she said. Myself and a couple of other passengers went to the desk, told her this, and requested she do it again. She simply shrugged her shoulders and said. "That's the way it goes."

That's crap — but seems to be the way the "New Delta" is being run. 

Upon calling Special Member Services and asking for information since none was forthcoming at the desk, I was put on hold while the representative said she would call the airport and ask. Now remember, I was told by Special Member Services when I called from Baggage Claim on arrival they couldn't do that. So who is lying here? When she returned to the line, she informed me my flight was in the boarding process. We didn't board for almost another hour.

At this point, I am much more than an unhappy customer, and am not someone who is satisfied with a condescending, cut and paste, insulting response that attempts to make all this my problem. So part of the solution to me, is using this forum to make you all aware of what you might expect if you fly Delta.

You've been warned...

Observing Gregoire Pushing Back Against The Facts

It’s been interesting observing Governor Christine Gregoire’s aggressive response to a series of recent radio ads paid for by ChangePac, the political arm of the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), critical of her record on sex offenders and foster care. She hasn’t responded nearly as aggressively on two other ChangePac spots related to traffic congestion and significantly increased taxes. I suspect that’s because she’d rather not remind voters traffic congestion has become massively worse since she’s been in office, that she increased spending by 33 percent, and raised our taxes over $500 million, while turning the largest budget surplus in state history into a deficit rapidly approaching $2.5 billion — in just four years.

The ads prompted this response from Gregoire: “We have hit rock bottom in this campaign and it is only June. I call on my Republican opponent Dino Rossi to denounce the BIAW and these ads and instead run a campaign focused on good policy and the issues.”

If these mildly critical, but completely factual ads, are “rock bottom,” then we’ve hit an absolute new low for pandering to the lowest common political dominator.

The Rossi campaign’s response was immediate and directly to the point. “Gregoire and her political operatives have been shamelessly trying to smear Dino since before our campaign even began. The Washington Education Association ran radio attack ads against Dino in February, the Democratic Governor’s Association and local unions have put more than $800,000 into the new Evergreen Progress PAC that will undoubtedly be used to attack Dino, and the State Democratic Party sends out almost daily press releases filled with distortions. Is Gregoire suddenly going to take a stand against all of these groups? I wouldn’t count on it.”

The response went on to mention the growing deficit, the 33 percent increase in state spending, the 3,100 released felons and those 1,300 missing sex offenders.

Gregoire has attempted to defend herself on the sex offender and foster care issues with faux outrage and by trotting out her endorsements from the Law Enforcement Administrators of Washington (LAW) and the Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs (WACOPS) — two lobbying groups.

When that didn’t work, she upped the ante and sent out a fundraising e-mail saying, “Governor Gregoire has been endorsed by EVERY major police and law enforcement organization in Washington.”

That’s a blatant lie. While organized labor is considered one of Gregoire’s strongholds, Rossi, has actually been endorsed by a number of police unions, including the state’s largest, the King County Police Officers Guild, as well as the Kitsap County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild, Port Orchard Police Association, and the Renton, Lakewood and Skamania County Police Officer’s Guilds. Look for even more police endorsements shortly.

But she couldn’t resist taking it step further by saying, “It’s clear that our Republican opponent and his friends will say and do anything to bring the failed policies of the Bush Administration to our state.”

Oh please... Exactly what does George Bush have to do with sex offenders running loose in our state?

Through all her bluster, Gregoire still failed to address just how many of those 1,300 plus untraceable sex offenders are now accounted for by the State. If the number were significant, it’s difficult to imagine her not using it to shoot back.

Meanwhile, Gregoire unveiled a her own attack ads shortly afterwards, coupled with a You Tube video from the state Democratic Party attempting to paint Rossi as a Mafioso — compete with music from The Soprano’s. The Italian-American community reacted angrily, demanding an apology, that Party Chair Dwight Pelz step down, and that the video be pulled immediately.

The Democrats offered a lukewarm admission of guilt, and pulled the video, but just imagine the righteous indignation, and how Rossi would have been vilified by the party that claims to pride itself on itself on acceptance of diversity, had this example of blatant bigotry come from the Republicans.

It appears to me Gregoire’s defensive strategy is all about misdirection. She also knows her media friends will buy into that misdirection, which casts BIAW — a tough, activist political adversary with a conservative bent, that’s done battle with Gregoire over all the decades she’s been in government — as the issue. That’s because she doesn’t want to address the real issues that have been raised in the ads. So she manufactures outrage over independent expenditures — even though her allies at the teachers union funded the very first attack ads in this campaign. Meanwhile, other labor unions, and extremist environmental groups will no doubt launch their own media offensives against Rossi.

Whether or not Gregoire’s fake outrage and misdirection will play with the voters, still remains to be seen.

However this brings the issue of the tons of cash that will continue to be spent on both sides of the Governor’s race — cash neither Gregoire nor Rossi have much control over — to the forefront. In spite of the candidate’s rhetoric, it’s not as if outside groups on either side of the governor’s race are likely to become more polite between now and November.

In other words, no matter who you support for governor, this is going to get real ugly before it’s all over..

Finally, it would be remiss to not quote state Democratic spokesperson Kelly Steele, because it puts this entire issue into perspective.

“Presumably people or groups supporting the governor share the vision of a majority of Washingtonians — affordable health care, investments in public education and support for working families all across this state,” Steele said. “Rossi’s backers oppose that agenda and represent the narrow agenda of moneyed special interests.”

It’s no secret political spokespeople are paid handsomely to come up with such serious sounding, but pinheaded, politically partisan, pap. But does any thinking person actually believe that the BIAW, the Association of Washington Business, the NFIB, the Farm Bureau and the dozens of other organizations that have endorsed Rossi — not to mention all those police officers — are simply “moneyed special interests,” while unions, environmentalists, teachers, and all the other groups supporting the governor and her party’s agenda are merely interested in the greater good? I think not. The voters just aren’t that stupid.

SKIA Going To Court?

Once again, the Kitsap Sun has editorialized to paint Port Orchard as the obstructionist in the SKIA debate without having all the facts, or even bothering to research them. Journalism 101 dictates at the very least, a telephone call should have been made to reaffirm what they thought they already knew.

There is supporting documentation for the 1998 MOU that was signed years after the original agreement. The Sun editorial fails to mention that — perhaps because the editorial writer didn't bother to ask.

The City of Port Orchard has invited officials from the Port and Bremerton, as well as the landowners, to sit down on two separate occasions so we could review that documentation and craft a plan that accommodates everyone's legal obligations and allows SKIA to move forward. But they have completely stonewalled us and refused to meet — or even respond.

Port Orchard, in conjunction with the Westsound Utility District, has invested millions of taxpayer dollars to support the infrastructure needs at SKIA based on the legal obligations the Port and Bremerton have agreed to. Why would we walk away from that — so a handful of landowners can get rich on the backs of our citizens?

The bottom line is Port Orchard will be negatively impacted financially in numerous ways by the development of SKIA if it isn't a partner to its development and share in the resources it generates. That was acknowledged in the original agreement and reaffirmed in subsequent documents. All Port Orchard is asking is that the parties signatory to those documents live up to the agreements they made — nothing more.

Port Orchard has stated in the past that it prefers negotiation to litigation. However, if Bremerton moves forward with the annexation in violation of the legal contract it signed, it will be responsible for forcing this matter into court — not Port Orchard.

With all that in mind, perhaps it would have been prudent for the Kitsap Sun editorial writers to have checked out ALL the facts — not accepting what they've been spoon fed by Bremerton as gospel — before writing something so blatantly biased against our city.

The State of Education

This comes from a UPI dispatch...

Students Get Proof Of Their "Education"

A Cleveland area principal says he is embarrassed his students got proof of their "educaiton" on their high school diploma.

Westlake High School officials misspelled "education" on the diplomas distributed this weekend. It's been the subject of mockery on local radio and TV. Principal Timothy Freeman says he sent the diplomas back once to correct another error.

When the corrected diplomas came back, no one bothered to check the things they thought were right the first time. Publisher Jostens (The Yearbook Company) has reprinted the new diplomas — the third attempt — and sent them to the 330 graduates.

Guess they don't have anything like the WASL back there in Ohio...

Hearings Board Gets One Right

The Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board (CPSGMHB) finally got one right when it dismissed the Sept. 13, 2007 appeal of Kitsap County’s Comprehensive Plan regarding its Capital Facilities Plan, which had resulted in a sewer planning remand. As a consequence of the ruling, the Kitsap County Commissioners had imposed a development moratorium on all land inside the proposed Urban Growth Areas (UGAs).

The process which defined the UGA expansions were the result of citizen's committees from each specific area coming together over a period of about three years and outlining the proposed boundaries. The plans were completely vetted by county staff, the Planning Commission, and the public, at numerous public hearings.

The arguments of the appellants, the Suquamish Tribe, Kitsap Citizens for Responsible Planning (KCRP), Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and South Kitsap resident Jerry Harless, were all rejected. The CPSGMHB ruled that the county’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan is compliant with the state’s Growth management Act (GMA) and that all the expanded Urban Growth Areas (UGAs) outlined in the plan are valid.

What annoys me specifically about this appeal is the fact the Suquamish Tribe was personally invited to participate in the joint Kitsap County/City of Port Orchard process for the South Kitsap UGA by it's chairman — yours truly. The idea was for our group to be able to address the Tribe's issues on the front end of the process, and hopefully avoid an appeal.

Tribal chairman Leonard Forsman rejected that idea saying, "We're a sovereign nation. We only deal on a government to government basis." When I gave him the option of being an equal partner and making it a joint County/City/Tribal process, he changed his tune, stating, "It's basically a manpower issue for us. It's cheaper for us to appeal on the back end than to staff it on the front end." When I asked about the fact an appeal costs the citizens of Kitsap upwards of a million dollars to defend, and ties up landowners for a year or more, he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not my problem."

He did this in front of at least 10 witnesses. I also wrote an editorial in the Business Journal at the time, telling this story. Forsman responded with a Letter to the Editor, which we ran, talking about how much the Tribe contributes to the local economy. However, he didn't refute the above details which were also contained in that editorial. And as reaction to the editorial, the tribe canceled its long-running full-page ad in the paper as well.

The Tribe's track record is to appeal land use decisions as a matter of course — in spite of the fact it hypocritically refuses to adhere to the very same rules in its own developments on tribal land it legally tries to force down the throats of the rest of us. It is also rumored to have financed the appeals of other groups. And as its commercial enterprises — the casino, hotel, Kiana Lodge, et. al. — continue to grow and prosper, we are feeding the tribe the very dollars it uses against us that has helped drain the county's coffers fighting its land use appeals. That's why I personally refuse to attend any function held on tribal property that requires me to spend any of my own money.

This decision also directly impacts appellant Harless, a former Kitsap County planner, who has been fighting the expansion of the South Kitsap UGA for the past five years or so. He lives on 5 acres of land situated in the triangle between Old Clifton Road, Berry Lake Road, and Highway 16, and is adamantly opposed to his property being included inside the UGA. As someone who has made a living in the planning field and has an excellent working knowledge of the GMA, Harless has become very skilled in the mechanics of working its processes to delay that inclusion.

Harless served on the Citizen's Advisory Committee for the South Kitsap UGA expansion, as did KCRP member Tom Donnelly. Harless chaired its Reasonable Measures Committee, and both voted in favor of the final version of the plan.

As a result of the ruling, the Board of Commissioners voted to lift the development moratorium at its June 9 meeting. This will open up all of the County's expanded UGAs for new subdivision and development permits. It will also allow land inside the contested UGA’s to now be annexed by the cities.

Lifting the moritorium also opens the door for a possible incorporation of Silverdale, as well as annexation of several areas of South Kitsap by the City of Port Orchard — most notably the Bethel Avenue corridor and the portions of Sidney Road/Pottery Avenue between Sedgwick Road and Tremont Street that are not currently inside the city limits. Both areas are inside the expanded UGA boundaries and targeted for commercial development in the comprehensive plan. A number of property owners in those areas had previously indicated they would petition the city for annexation once the moratorium was lifted.

Annexation of Bethel Road between Lund Avenue and Sedgwick Road would also eliminate the onerous Bethel Corridor Design Standards. The restrictions on development contained in those regulations — which were imposed at the insistence of former county commissioner and current commission candidate Charlotte Garrido — are blamed for making development on Bethel completely unfeasible financially.

Could that be why NO development has occurred on Bethel since they were imposed over a decade ago? It looks like they worked exactly like Charlotte intended them to.

Observation on Obama and Clinton

What appears below is an interesting — and accurate — synopsis of why Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton. It originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune. Read it here.

5 reasons Obama won, 5 reasons Clinton lost ... and 5 differences between Obama, McCain

5 reasons Obama won
1. He owned the word "change" when voters were fed up with the status quo. In a field of older, better-known candidates, he represented "the new."
2. He opposed the Iraq War when others were equivocal. The issue was a clear winner against Clinton, who had voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion.
3. His oratory was electrifying. While his early debate performances seemed halting and uncomfortable, he steadily improved. His stump speeches were assured, and he drew crowds as large as 75,000.
4. His campaign was better strategically and operationally, particularly in taking the long view and focusing on caucus states and primaries beyond Super Tuesday.
5. He won the Internet, notably in raising record amounts of money and building networks of supporters through non-traditional methods.

5 reasons Clinton lost
1. Her campaign was too corporate and hierarchical. It spent too much on staff, was too slow in decision-making and had too little independent thinking.
2. She didn't recognize the threat Obama posed early enough, and went straight from "inevitable" to in trouble.
3. She invested heavily in Iowa, then lost to Obama there. Her deputy campaign manager had urged her to skip the opening caucuses, which her husband, Bill, had bypassed in 1992.
4. She had no coherent post-Super Tuesday plan. While she held her own in the Feb. 5 primaries, including a big victory in California, she lost the next 11 contests.
5. She failed to connect with African-American voters, a demographic that had always been in her corner. Early in the race, poorly timed comments by Bill Clinton hurt her among blacks.

5 major differences between Obama and McCain
1. McCain supports the Iraq War; Obama opposes it.
2. McCain opposes abortion; Obama favors abortion rights.
3. Obama favors talking with hostile regimes; McCain does not.
4. McCain would make the Bush tax cuts permanent; Obama would not.
5. Obama favors more restrictions on gun ownership than McCain.