Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Friday, October 27, 2006

Mike and Cathy Hit The Bookie

U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris made a stop at The Bookie on the campus of Washington State University this morning.


Obviously buoyed by recent endorsements from the Seattle Times and the Spokesman-Review, an energetic and enthusiastic McGavick addressed a crowd of about 50-60 supporters.

Mike talked about the toll the campaign was taking on his family life, but told the students to be prepared to make a sacrifice if they wanted to make a difference. He said political campaigns are always about the next generation having it better than we do now.

McGavick said Congress needs a "big dose of Northwest common sense" and he's just the man to administer it.


He stated that we need a "victory strategy" in Iraq, not an "exit strategy." We should rethink our tactics when there are failures, but the U.S. can't leave a vacuum that would create a base for terrorism. We have to be realistic about that.

On immigration, McGavick supports a guest worker program and a border fence. He metioned that fruit in Washington has rotted on the vine due to a lack of workers to pick it. Mike asked how people are kept out of a sold-out Martin Stadium game and said a border fence be a similar concept. It only makes sense. He scoffed at Democratic ideas to "take 8 x 10s" of people crossing the border from surveillance blimps. We need to physically prevent people from crossing the border illegally.

He said the race is close, and that is why Cantwell is running attack ads. McGavick said he has not gone negative yet and won't, even though he has not been treated in kind.

Mike then introduced Congresswoman Cathy McMorris.


McMorris spoke of how she helped reform student loans by getting more money into direct loans, helping students versus companies that administer the loans. Her efforts have also made more loans available to freshman and sophomores


Cathy showed a real humorous side when she stated, "A recession is when the other guy is out of work, a depression is when you're out of work, and an economic recovery is when Maria Cantwell out of work!"

All in all, it was a great event. Supporters were motivated and upbeat and ready to get out the vote for our next Senator and re-elect our Congresswoman! The College Republicans under President Kiley Smith did a fabulous job. I had a chance to chat extensively with representatives of the McMorris campaign and Palousitics is going to start doing even more to rebut the nasty lies and innuendo (like today's mailing that McMorris is somehow affiliated with the Foley page scandal) being spread about her by the Goldmark campaign. Look out Rats, we're coming out swinging!

4 comments:

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

I wanted to attend, but I had a student taking a make up exam this morning, followed by a lecture on Kant (which cannot be crammed into a short amount of time and glossed over, as Kant's rather simple ideas must be excavated from his awful writing).

Oh well... I'll just catch the election night victory parties. :P

Unknown said...

Ah, the categorical imperative. Always a favorite of mine.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

The categorical imperative is pretty good, particularly the second formulation.

But on Kant's metaphysics and epistemology, I have to agree with Rand about them: Kant's views, that we cannot truly know reality and therefore cannot actually reason, have contributed to the rise of radical skepticism, nihilism, and moral relativism that have plagued western society for some time now, also popularizing the bizarre notion of self-negation (altruism) as virtue.

(Yes, I am an ethical egoist. :) )

As I told my students today, just in terms of dealing directly with Kant's works themselves, that I agree with H.L. Mencken's opinion about them and about Kant:

"Kant was probably the worst writer ever heard of on earth before Karl Marx. Some of his ideas were really quite simple, but he always managed to make them seem unintelligible. I hope he is in Hell."

:)

April E. Coggins said...

There were some highschool teenagers at the event and they invented the exclamation mark signs. Very clever. I'm sorry to gush, but we have some real talent in our midst.

Mike! spoke about working for the next generation and I literally had tears in my eyes because of the pride I have for young people who were at the event.