Waukesha Carnival 02/17/2008

Well, I had 21 posts marked for this week’s carnival. I don’t think I’m going to include them all. You can submit an post via Blog Carnival, or send them to me at thoughtfulconservative [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Ok, let’s see how many we can get to.

Shawn Matson at his new digs on WordPress, Cooler Near the Lake, has started a series on Senate candidates and has speculation concerning Wisconsin’s senator Herb Kohl.

I included this one from Asian Badger on migration patterns between the states because he and Dad29 have discussion in the comments.

Josh at Blog Waukesha posts on city employees, taxes and shoveling the sidewalks in front of your house.

In the interest of variety,

I include Bryon Houlgrave’s series on photography, The good, the bad and the ugly.

I had to include this one from Dad29 because we don’t often get to praise the work of the Wisconsin DPI.

Cindy Kilkenny gives good advice for giving to any charitable organization.

Jeff at Five Points has initiated a new series also, Five Questions @ Five Points. His first interview is with the owner of The Nice Ash Cigar Bar, Jeff Barta.

Sancho gives us another Hobo sandwich, his own collection of posts from the area.

Fox Head opines on an article suggesting Waukesha’s Super Wal-Mart may be in trouble.

James Wigderson gets criticized twice, from the right! Whoda thunk it?

Spring City Chronicle helps us get to the origin of the derivation of the city, county, town’s name.

Pete Fanning shows a popular Lincoln quote to be not really from Lincoln.

And we can’t go without touching presidential election politics (I think there must be a primary somewhere this week that I should do something about). Scott Feldstein has advice for Texans when they go to vote (Hey, don’t ask me; it’s his blog). Family Guy says, essentially (OK I may be taking some liberties here), I knew JFK and Obama is no JFK.

Whew! That’s all for this week. What? Isn’t that enough? Anyway, y’all keep writing and I’ll keep linking.

Barack Obama in Milwaukee

I got into downtown about 9:45, found a nice little parking lot north of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel building and walked down to the Midwest Airlines Center.

Speakers were already warming up the crowd that WTMJ estimated at 6000, including a large contingent of young people, when I got into the hall at about 10:10. He was introduced at about 10:30 and he spoke for about 45 minutes, counting the several times he was interrupted by applause.

Obama looks very comfortable speaking and spoke without referring to notes. He started behind the podium, but soon grabbed the wireless mike and walked the stage during his speech reminding of some preachers I have seen.

He hit the typical themes, health care, fixing schools, energy independence, getting out of Iraq, a plan for giving students money for college in exchange for community service, and other subjects. One refrain was urgency, that we can’t wait for these problems to be solved. He also responded to criticisms Clinton has made and criticized her. He also poked at McCain, linking him with Bush. Many of the topics were the same as Cindy Kilkenny noted in his appearance in Waukesha. Well, it is a stump speech.

One thing I noticed here and at the Huckabee rally about the speeches, say the right things, don’t get too specific, after all these are rallies, not forums.

After speaking, Obama moved across the front shaking hands.

More pictures are here.

Other coverage:

TMJ4

WISN

A short video clip

Barack Obama rally

I have my e-ticket in hand and I’m off to the Midwest Airlines Center for the Barack Obama rally. More when I return.

Fact checking Obama and Clinton ads

If you haven’t seen them yet here in Wisconsin, you most likely soon will. FactCheck.org takes a look at them.

# Obama is being misleading when he says his proposal would “cover everyone.” It would make coverage available to all, but experts we consulted estimate that 15 million to 26 million wouldn’t take it up unless required to do so.

# Clinton stretches things a bit, too. Even her plan – which, unlike Obama’s, includes a mandate for individuals to get insurance – would leave out a million people or perhaps more, depending on how severe the penalties would be for those who don’t comply. She won’t say how her mandate would be enforced, but has said that she was open to the possibility of garnishing wages.

# Experts also are skeptical of both candidates’ claims that their plans will reduce the cost of insurance for the typical family by $2,000 or more. ” I know zero credible evidence to support that conclusion,” says M.I.T’s Jonathan Gruber.

Romney Endorses McCain

From CBS News,

Republican campaign dropout Mitt Romney endorsed John McCain for the party’s presidential nomination and asked his national convention delegates to swing behind the likely nominee.

If, in fact, Romney’s delegates follow his recommendation, it should just about seal the nomination for McCain, depending on how you see the delegate situation playing out (I don’t think I’ve found two sources that agree on how many delegates any of the candidates have).

Mike Huckabee rally in Pewaukee

UPDATE: Welcome wisopinion.com readers. I have not yet decided who I’m going to vote for on Tuesday.

Bryon Houlgrave shot a video of speech excerpts posted on the Conley Publishing website. He also posted some of his own (with tips to photography) at his blog (it has a self-portrait).

And two more to note, the Marquette Tribune (NOTE: video purported to be from this rally is not.) Jessica McBride had an op-ed in the Waukesha Freeman. Her thoughts parallel mine in many ways.

Donning my black Tampa Bay Buccaneers cap, I braved the cold and ventured out to the Country Springs Hotel to catch a glimpse of the Republican candidate for president Mike Huckabee. (NOTE: Barack Obama had a rally at the Waukesha Exp, but work requirements prevented me from going there. FOX 6 coverage, TMJ4, Cindy Kilkenny with multiple posts (h/t to Owen) [a comment-it looks as though the Obama crowd went through a security check--I just walked right in the Hotel, no dogs, no wand])

Huckabee insists that he’s in it to win and that no one has the required delegates to sew up the nomination, but John King on Larry King Live did the math and even if Huckabee wins the remaining contests, McCain still gets enough delegates to win (Based on Huckabee 50%, McCain 40%, Paul 10%).

To the rally itself, I’m no good at estimating crowds, so I’ll take WTMJ’s word at 500.

Tim Michels introduced Huckabee and he began his speech. Formerly a pastor, Huckabee is very comfortable speaking to a crowd.

Huckabee hit all his main points and then some; his experience as governor and contrasting that with the other candidates who have only been legislators, security issues, especially our borders, fair tax and doing away with the IRS, free trade without “handicaps,” energy independence, protecting the unborn, treating our veterans right and giving them the benefits they deserved, and a strong national defense.

He pounded the fact that Washington has not fixed these problems.

He was folksy at time telling stories of singing the National Anthem at Lambeau Field.

He spoke for about 25 minutes and then shook hands and signed his autograph.

More pictures can be found here.

NOTE: I still haven’t decided how I’m going to vote on Tuesday. I picked up two “I like Mike” signs because you never can tell when they might be of use (perhaps if this guy’s alter ego runs for office)

Other coverage of Mike Huckabee’s visit:

Steven Sheets, an area minister, also blogged the event and has pictures.

Jessica McBride was there.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

My FOX Milwaukee

TMJ4 interview

TMJ4 Huckabee speaks in Pewaukee

CBS 58 Mike Huckabee campaigns in Pewaukee

Wispolitics Election blog

Other Wisconsin campaign coverage

TMJ4 interview with John McCain

Wispolitics on Obama’s visit to Waukesha