Morning

It is 17 degrees and sunny here in Upstate NY. I'm happy to report that the new dog is doing just fine after her spaying surgery. Her playfulness is back and her energy is back as well. We still have to keep her from doing any jumping and playing with other dogs is out for the next 12 days. Her incision is healing and looks fine. Its good to have her back.

Romney of course wins big in Nevada. It looks like his showdown with Obama remains on track. Romney is the old guard conventional GOPer favored candidate. Gingrich is a sideshow. Hopefully this will be Gingrich's last hurrah as it were. Gingrich has abused far too much media attention and media face time.

With the DOW approaching 13,000 and with jobs slowly trickling in along with the slowly lowering 'official' unemployment percentage, now at 8.3%, Obama may have just enough credentials in terms of the economy to propel him into another term. From the overall perspective the ship is slowly turning from the precarious great recession. The housing market in sections of the country is still very poor, housing being fundamental to the recovery. So one could say the recovery is spotty. Nevada is in tough shape with many in foreclosure and many not just underwater but deeply underwater. In Las Vegas houses previously valued at $250,000 are now selling for or valued at under $100,000. That is being seriously underwater.

The trick part of this year that will effect the November election in my opinion, or at least as I see it right now, is Iran.

One extremely troubling aspect of Romney is that he is being tutored in foreign policy by the neocons. These are the same neocons that pushed a disengaged Bush II into the disastrous Iraq War along with the accompanying torture, Gitmo, and democracy breaching monstrosities. All of that Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld ugliness was neocon energy. The neocons are back and this is where Romney gets his bold strident talk on warring with Iran. That alone is a significant reason to stay away from Romney. War with Iraq was disastrous and unnecessary, Iran is a far far more developed and integral country than Iraq. Its a night and day situation.

I will be holding my nose and voting for Obama. Now if Obama relinquishes any semblance of restraint with Iran in the next 9 months, I will abstain from voting this year. If Obama goes after Iran in the next 9 months, the difference between Obama and Romney would really be minimal almost imperceptible, both are extreme corporatists first and foremost and right now the only separation is their foreign policy view with Obama being less war strident than Romney. We really do not want another war right now.