I’ll have to admit – I miss being at this convention. I haven’t missed one since 1996 and I didn’t pick McCain, so I’m not a delegate. There’s nothing like being on the floor on Wednesday and Thursday night and feeling the electricity. it’s awesome. This year, I’ve found both conventions to be fascinating. Watching tonight’s speeches with myeleven year old son, Grant, was especially fun.He’s interested in all of it, and better yet, he seems to be especially sympathetic to the conservative side.

The Obama campaignreminds of a major league baseball team with a 17 game lead in July that goes into a funk and hits a couple of losing streaks. To stop their slide, they bring in an aging, but known quantity for the stretch run and it just doesn’t help. They slowly losetheir 17 game lead and wind up tied in September and heading for the home stretch without the momentum or inevitability they once had, and now, its anyone’s race. Meanwhile, the team catching up to them is full of old veterans who have stumbled badly– but seem to have one more stretch runin them. And what… Read More

You know what I like most about Assemblyman La Malfa, he can say in three words what is takes me a one thousand to say. The wisdom of a farmer over the verbosity of a lawyer.

That being said, I wanted to talk about the budget and two articles that appeared today about the dispute, one from Dan Walters and the other from Dan Weintraub. A short synopsis of the Walters article is that the Republican plan is the one most likely to be adopted, not because it is a perfect plan, but because the Legislative Republicans are sticking together. Walters notes the problems in both the Governor’s plans and the Democrat plan, neither of which will fix the budget problem either. The Weintraub artilcle blasts those same Republicans because they won’t vote for a tax increase to "permanently" fix the budget problem in California.

Now usually neither Walters nor Weintraub get things right, not because they are not experienced, but they don’t think outside the box in politics. They like the tired old cliches that masquerade as solutions among the pseudo-intellectual chattering class in Sacramento. They are willing to criticize doctrinaire Liberals… Read More

Judge Peter Polos of the Orange County SuperiorCourt has issued a tentative ruling that Congressman John Campbell’s District Director may not use the "false" name "Lou Penrose" alonein his race for the Dana Point City Council in this November’s municipal election. Instead, he must include his real name, and the ballot will state: "Lou Penrose, a/k/a Luigi Rossetti Jr."A final hearing will be held tomorrow afternoon where Rossetti may discuss his reaction to the tentative ruling, and the Court can receive any argument for changes. However, the County of Orange, the City of Dana Point, and the Plaintiff have all agreed to the tentative ruling.

Rossetti adopted the name "Lou Penrose" as a radio personality for a small radio station in Palm Springs, CA a number of years ago. Rossetti kept the name for political meetings, but refused to legally change his name and uses the name "Luigi Rossetti, Jr." on his drivers’ license, and for legal documents, such as ownership of his home in Dana Point. He is registered to vote as "Lou Penrose Rossetti,… Read More

A second person told me that Fred Thompson’s great speech last night was mostly the one Arnold Shwarzenegger was to give at the RNC Convention.

I assume it as the last have that didn’t deal with current events. It is your call, but would the Governor give a speech that included discussion of character? And attributes like "Strength. Courage.Humility.Wisdom.Duty.Honor."

If so it was a good thing he kept his word this time not to come.… Read More

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Frankly, I have been pretty impressed with Democrat Senator Lou Correa in this year’s budget stand-off. While every other Democrat Senator has had no problem showing a willingness to compound the financial woes by punishing California taxpayers with more taxes, Correa, who campaigned rather overtly as a "different kind of Democrat" and on a pledge to voters that he would oppose new taxes, has not gone along with his socialist-leaning colleagues. On a recent budget vote, which included a massive sales tax increase, Correa refused to go along, abstaining and withholding his vote.

That said, it is possible that my positive thoughts about Correa in this budget stand-off may be misplaced, after all. Yesterday, the Orange County Senator voted not once, but twice against motions to allow for hearings on a bill by Republican Senator Jeff Denham to provide vital services to Californian’s most vulnerable customers of government. Most recently, yesterday Senator Jim Battin made a motion to have a hearing on the bill, and Correa… Read More

It’s been non-stop action for the California Delegation since Saturday evening here in St. Paul. The convention has scaled back out of respect for the crisis on the Gulf Coast; and it’s entirely appropriate to focus our nation’s attention on the trials of our fellow citizens at this time. But now that the imminent danger has passed, delegates are also taking care of the important business of nominating the team we believe is best qualified to lead our nation for the next four years.

Jon and Jill have posted about some of their experiences already—and with so much taking place at a national political convention, there’s a lot to cover. Yesterday the delegation heard from former Governor Pete Wilson who delivered a stirring speech about the socialist policies of Barack Obama. What few of Obama’s acolytes fail to understand is that for all his charisma and teleprompter-eloquence, the junior senator from Illinois wants to be President of the United States, not president of the West Wing television show.

We also heard a moving presentation from American hero Captain Jerry Coffee, a Vietnam War prisoner. His compelling story about 7 years in a Vietnamese… Read More

Looks like we are "back on" here in Minneapolis. We’ve been told that we’ll have a "normal" convention evening — President Bush will speak, as will Rudy Giuliani and others. I think that our VEEP nominee, Sarah Palin, will also speak this evening. We’ll bring you more coverage on how that all goes — though be sure to watch some of the coverage on tv. Should be good stuff.

In case you are wondering why we love California — it’s raining cats and dogs here. The upside — all of the lame eco-terrorist protesters are stuck in the rain.… Read More