Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Biden vs. Palin: Funny and Educational Video

GOOD: Palin vs. Biden

Obama: To Thine Own Self Be True


Is Barack Obama too cool to be elected president?

That's what some of his own supporters are wondering after the first presidential debate. We aren't talking here about the kind of cool that makes you one of the most popular kids in school.

Instead, the cool at issue here is the kind that means being low-key, a bit reserved and short on emotional displays. Desirable as such characteristics may be in some quarters of society, they are often thought to suggest something is lacking in a politician, who supposedly needs to show passion, a willingness to fight for beliefs and a burning desire to win.

The fear that Sen. Obama lacks those tendencies has been an undercurrent among Democrats for many months, and the concern has oozed to the surface since last week's debate against Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Their fear is that Sen. Obama took too many punches, delivered too few of his own, and explained more than battled.

Just one example: Lincoln Mitchell, writing on the Huffington Post blog, bemoaned the fact that Sen. Obama didn't challenge the McCain assertions during last week's debate that he was "naive" about the ways of the world. "By not fighting this label," Mr. Mitchell wrote, "Obama seemed to almost concede the point. Nobody wants a naive president; and Obama should have challenged this label -- especially because it is wrong."

Moreover, Democrats are anguished that Sen. Obama acknowledged that Sen. McCain was right on some points so often that Republicans instantly put out a television ad pointing out the fact.

It's an understandable concern for Obama partisans, and perhaps Sen. Obama might be better off if he shed some of that natural cool and became more of a jouster.

But that analysis also misses an important point. It's almost always a mistake for a candidate to campaign as something other than what he really is. It's probably a particular mistake this year, given the public mood of 2008.

Consider some history on this point. There seems little doubt that the cerebral Al Gore made a mistake by trying to turn himself into a fire-breathing populist in the 2000 presidential campaign. When Michael Dukakis's 1988 campaign tried to make him appear to be the kind of hawk he wasn't by propping him up in a tank, the result was a disaster.

Ronald Reagan's friends complained regularly that he got into trouble when his handlers overscripted him and wouldn't "let Ronnie be Ronnie," and they were probably right. On the other side of this campaign, Sen. McCain, arising from the ashes after his campaign virtually collapsed in 2007, reverted to the unscripted and independent-sounding campaigner he had been.

The jury is still out on the more recent controlled version of the McCain campaign, though it's noteworthy that his late-summer surge came when he made a McCain-like unconventional decision to choose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. And now that Gov. Palin's image is picking up some tarnish, there's a quiet let-Sarah-be-Sarah sentiment developing among Republicans who think she has been so tightly controlled to prevent mistakes that her natural appeal has been stifled.

Which brings us to Sen. Obama. The fact is that he is a cool customer. He has been known to shoo to the back of his campaign bus his own aides when they were feverishly working their BlackBerrys and obsessing about late-breaking gossip and poll results. He tends to answer debate questions by analyzing the problem under discussion at some length before winding around to saying what he would do about it. He doesn't seem to like the close-quarters jabbing of a standard political debate, which showed whether his foe was Hillary Clinton or Sen. McCain.

Those are the characteristics that have some Democrats wondering whether they see in Sen. Obama the shadows of another Illinois politician, Adlai Stevenson, rather than the second coming of Bill Clinton. Democrats are particularly sensitive on this point because they have concluded that both Mr. Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004 lost because they allowed themselves to be turned into punching bags during their campaigns.

But this is 2008, and Sen. Obama is a different candidate. From the outset, his campaign persona was built on the idea that, as a young politician and a newcomer to Washington, he stood outside the conventional politics of the past two decades. The appeal of Sen. Obama in many ways lies in the notion that he is a "postpartisan" leader who isn't held hostage by the partisan attack machines that many Americans think their country's political institutions have become.

There's reason to wonder whether Sen. Obama is as postpartisan as his rhetoric suggests, but the point is that the image has worked to his benefit. It also happens to have been the very image that helped Sen. McCain win his party's nomination this year, which tells us something about the mood of the country right now. There is palpable anger afoot in the land, and it seems to be directed at the way politics is practiced as much as anything else. Let no attack go unanswered is one rule of politics; to thine own self be true may be an equally powerful one this year.

Wall Street Journal article located here

Write to Gerald F. Seib at jerry.seib@wsj.com

Image from http://www.britannica.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/obama1.jpg

Love your way... you are Brilliant!

Alan Davidson is the author of the Free report

"Body Breakthroughs for Life Breakthroughs: How to Peak Your

Physical, Emotional, Mental, Moral, and Spiritual IQs for a

Sensational Life"

available at www.throughyourbody.com

Alan is also the author of Body Brilliance:

Mastering Your Five Vital Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie

www.ThroughYourBody.com

1103 Peveto St.

Houston, TX 77019

713-942-0923




Monday, September 29, 2008

Make a Donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's Name



“Make a donation to Planned Parenthood,” the anonymous e-mail message urged. “Of any amount. In Sarah Palin’s name.”

The message, which began circulating widely on the Internet last week, had one more instruction: request that the personalized thank-you card from Planned Parenthood be sent to Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee and a vocal opponent of abortion, at the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters in Virginia.

So far, the scheme seems to be getting a strong response. As of Friday, Planned Parenthood had taken in $802,678 in donations from 31,313 people, said a spokesman for the organization, Tait Sye. More than two-thirds of the individuals are first-time donors to Planned Parenthood, Mr. Sye said, and money came in from all 50 states.

Ms. Palin’s status as a fund-raising draw for Planned Parenthood puts her in the company of President Bush, who was the target of a similar scheme in 2001, said Patt Morrison, a columnist for The Los Angeles Times who took credit for the idea.

“I envisioned a scene out of ‘Miracle on 34th Street,’ ” Ms. Morrison wrote on The Huffington Post last week, “sacks and sacks of thank-you cards from Planned Parenthood, delivered to Bush in the Oval Office.”

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, called the response “phenomenal,” and said she wanted to personally thank the “tens of thousands of individuals who responded to this call to action.”

Planned Parenthood said it would begin mailing the thank-you cards next week. The McCain campaign declined to comment.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

American Prayer

Stories come alive through the radio




I came across several radio interviews that I did promoting my book "Body Brilliance" and my work and I thought several of my readers out there might be interested. Enjoy!

Click here to listen to my interview with Michael Taylor of "A New Conversation with Men" about Overcoming Adversity with the Five Intelligences.

Click here to listen in as Francesca Gentille and I discuss Mastering the Laws of Sacred Sexual Attraction


And don't miss my November 28th, 2008 interview with Just Energy Radio! Click here to listen in.




Love your way... you are Brilliant!

Alan Davidson is the author of the Free report

"Body Breakthroughs for Life Breakthroughs: How to Peak Your

Physical, Emotional, Mental, Moral, and Spiritual IQs for a

Sensational Life"

available at www.throughyourbody.com

Alan is also the author of Body Brilliance:

Mastering Your Five Vital Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/










Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Afternoon of Yoga and Meditation Rescheduled

Hello All!

Due to Hurricane Ike's lasting effects we have made the decision to reschedule the "Afternoon of Yoga & Meditation" to October 19th. If you registered for this event we will be contacting you shortly to see if this date change coordinates with your schedule. If you have not registered, we still have several available spaces but are expecting them to go fast! Our limit is 50 individuals, so if you are interested in signing up do so fast by calling 713-942-0923. We will be updating the website shortly so that you may also register online.

This workshop will explore basic yogic philosophy, do yoga asana (all levels), & practice breathing, meditation and chanting. It will be led by myself and Kay Westcott.

Event Details:

Mankind Center Houston
6950 West 43rd Street
Houston, TX 77092
Parking is Free
Bring your yoga mat and something to sit on

Registration details:

Cost is $55 in advance and $65 at the door





Love your way... you are Brilliant!

Alan Davidson is the author of the Free report

"Body Breakthroughs for Life Breakthroughs: How to Peak Your
Physical, Emotional, Mental, Moral, and Spiritual IQs for a
Sensational Life"

available at www.throughyourbody.com

Alan is also the author of Body Brilliance:
Mastering Your Five Vital Intelligences (IQs)

http://bodybrilliancebook.com/bbb_movie/

Watch the Body Brilliance Movie