Ray Stevens and the politics of Humor, Part 2...

The day is finally here...Election Day 2012...anyone anxious, nervous, worried, cautious, optimistic, pessimistic? The latest Ray Stevens on-line video, "Grandpa Voted Democrat", is nearing the 100,000 plateau as I write this blog entry! The most recent unique view total is 91,294.

On this day I decided to provide links to several of Ray's music video releases as well as couple of digital downloads as a sort of last minute reminder of why I feel Obama and those in Congress who follow his lead need voted out of office since a lot of them are up for re-election.

We The People

Mr. President - Mr. President

Obama Budget Plan

Obama Nation

Cap'n Trade the Pirate Mp3

New Normal Mp3 "New Normal" is a song that predicts a bleak future should Obama get re-elected...it tells of a homeless guy who fell victim to what's popularly referred to as the 'new normal' when it comes to the economy and the general acceptance by those in charge that the economy will never see the kinds of growth it did during much of the '90s and early 2000's. "Cap'n Trade the Pirate" is simply too irresistible to leave on the CD without much fanfare. It should've become a music video...maybe it will in 2013...but the song is about Obama and many of the left-wing radicals and the diabolical cap and trade energy concept.

Lastly, I decided to post a link to Ray's latest music video...

Grandpa Voted Democrat

Ray Stevens addresses Voter Fraud...

Hello all the Ray Stevens fans...it's a very, very early Monday morning...one day before the big election of 2012. Now, of course, since all of us know that Ray's contemporary music has a political overtone and he has a brand new music video available as well, my blog entries will be decidedly political, too, leading up to the election tomorrow. After the election comes and goes I'll resume the Golden LP Series of blog entries I've been working on and pick up where I left off...but for now I've embedded "Grandpa Voted Democrat" once again...  



The music video's obtained more than 45,000 views in less than 2 days time. The total so far is 45,856 views. For those familiar with You Tube you'll recall that the site was experiencing technical issues the very day that Ray's new music video was uploaded. It was described by some as an upload server issue of some sort. This no doubt effected the availability of many newly uploaded videos on Saturday and it also effected the unique views of videos, too, as the site was basically running slow (if connecting at all). When you do a video search at You Tube for Ray Stevens + Grandpa Voted Democrat the results page will show up and you'll see the most up to date unique view count for Ray's video. However, as of now, when you click the video and the video's page opens up, because You Tube was having server issues for so many hours on Saturday and into early Sunday morning, the view totals for this particular video were affected dramatically.

On the video's You Tube page it shows it has 17,496 views but yet when you do a site search for the video it shows the video has 45,856 views. That has me believing that more than 26,000 views had been obtained during You Tube's technical problems on Saturday but those numbers haven't been applied to the totals on the video's main page. It's the only way to explain such a dramatic discrepancy in the numbers. Since this kind of thing had never happened before with any of Ray's other music videos I wonder how long it'll be before the total number of views on the video's main page are brought up to date.

Ray Stevens: Obama Nation, Part 22...

Seen the Ray Stevens "Obama Nation" music video yet? You have if you've been a reader of this blog for any length of time. The video's unique views currently sit at 662,692! It's gotten more and more exposure due to the series of debates and the closer we get to Election Day.



It's laughable seeing all of the liberal bloggers, pundits, and commentators in a giddy gaggle of excitement proclaiming Obama as the 'winner' of Debate #2 Tuesday night. Stand back and examine what's going on...they're excited because Obama raised his voice and laid on the arrogance, coupled with the interruption technique mastered by Joe Biden. Exactly what did Obama have to say about his time in the White House that he hadn't been saying all year long during the campaign speeches? What did Obama say that qualified him for another 4 years? He interrupted, twisted facts, played class warfare, and in the middle of it was a moderator who suspiciously ran to his aid whenever he was at a loss for words or was confronted with subject matter about his own record. So, no, Obama didn't 'win' last night...if one is to play the game of who won then you'd have to pick Romney as the winner again. He spoke about the facts, spoke about his ideas and visions for the country, and spoke about how he'd deal with the economy and what his foreign policy would look like. All Obama could do, as mentioned earlier, was raise his voice and eventually resort to name calling and 'gotcha' moments which, to me, shown he was simply there for potential sound-bytes and visual swagger to cheer up his voting base rather than have a discussion about the top issues of the day.



The Libya issue came up...and Obama had the nerve to say that he called it a terrorist attack a day later on September 12. What Obama did was use the phrase 'act of terror' in a generalization...those words were said in a speech he gave but in no way did he declare it a terrorist attack in the traditional sense and what's more baffling is why Obama, Hillary Clinton, and everyone else in the Administration were spreading the false story about the Libya event being tied to a You Tube video if they knew it was a terrorist attack all along. What's ended up happening is two to three story-lines are being muddled and blended together to create confusion. The third debate between Romney and Obama will be about foreign policy and so much will be discussed about Libya, I assume!?!

Ray Stevens: Obama Nation, Part 19...

"Obama Nation" by Ray Stevens has increased by a total of 15,770 on-line views to bring it's total number of views to 623,409. The video, of course, is available on You Tube along with several other Ray Stevens music videos. The song, as I've mentioned before, comes from his We The People release. That particular CD, as well as Spirit of '76, both found Here, are a must-have for those who identify themselves as members of the Tea Party and those with conservative points of view. The link takes you to the store at Ray's web-site where both CD's, a flag lapel, and his Let's Get Political essay/opinion book are being sold together. The book and flag lapel come free and so you're actually only paying for the two CD's in that order. We The People contains 22 songs on one CD and 4 music videos on a bonus DVD. Spirit of '76 is a more conventional CD release with 11 songs. The book features the lyrics of all 33 songs on both releases as well as essay and commentary from Ray Stevens and his songwriter friend, Buddy Kalb.

It seems as if the current trend from the mainstream media is to play sour grapes when it comes to the Romney campaign...more so than in times past. A local radio personality gave an observation that I found to be 100% accurate when he stated that the mainstream media is hoping that the Romney-Ryan supporters will become discouraged from voting based upon first-glance "negative" polling numbers that the media is all too eager to highlight, emphasize, and promote. By my using the phrase first-glance, of course, it means that some people look only at the numbers and do not research and find out how the numbers were generated or who was polled and at what time of the day or which demographic was targeted for replies, etc. etc.

There is early voting going on in several states and it's the perfect opportunity for the Obama supporters in the mainstream media to create a cloud of discouragement for those who support Romney. I assume, as the radio personality said, the Obama backers hope to discourage the Romney supporters from voting early.

It's one of the oldest political tricks in the book and, in general, it works like this: create insecurity and discouragement in the opposition's voting base and attempt to plant the idea in their heads that there's no reason to show up to vote since their candidate "doesn't have a chance at winning".

Admittedly there may be some people who fall for this tactic and it's a shame if they do.

If voters stick to the facts and base Obama's time in the White House on their final decision this coming Election Day then he doesn't have a chance of re-election. You can't sweep away or hide reality...as much as Obama wants to...and as much as his supporters gallantly strive to keep the facts hidden under the surface.

This election, as it's been said by many others, mirrors the 1980 election campaigns between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan where Reagan was constantly losing in the polls and being painted as a long shot at becoming President by the mainstream media. It wasn't until the head-to-head debates that Reagan was able to strip away all the negatives heaped upon him by his opponents and those in the media. Once the people saw the contrast between Carter and Reagan it was obvious that Carter's policies and visions were Utopian based and not rooted in reality.

In my opinion, based on factual rather than revisionist history, Carter won the 1976 election because of the public sentiment about Watergate and you had the current President, Gerald Ford, voted out because of the scandal's impact on practically anybody associated with Nixon regardless whether the associates were directly involved or had any knowledge of the happenings. The Democrats also had what they may have considered an ace in the hole due to Ford's not having been "elected by the people" to either the Vice-Presidency or the Presidency. He was and still remains the only person to hold those positions without having been voted in by a national election. He was appointed Vice-President when Spiro Agnew resigned from office and then Ford became President when Richard Nixon resigned. Once Ford pardoned Nixon for any alleged crimes or other wrong doing, it pretty much doomed his Presidential election chances in 1976. History books often cite that the most positive thing that happened during Ford's presidency (1974-1976) was America's Bicentennial celebrations during the mid '70s leading up to July 4, 1976. The 2011 Ray Stevens CD, Spirit of '76, is named for the art work of the same name recalling the imagery of the Revolutionary War. 

But let's fast-forward from Ford's defeat in 1976 to McCain's defeat in 2008. Obama becomes the President on the heels of negative public sentiment surrounding the conflicts taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Democrats of 2008, much like those in 1976, used the public sentiment to rally the voters to their side. John McCain lost to Obama in 2008 based upon negative Republican sentiment across the board. To this day many Obama supporters like to engage in the "blame Bush" tactic in the hopes that it'll re-create in 2012 the sentiment it had in 2008 when it worked against McCain. I don't feel it will work in 2012 because, mainly, Obama is an incumbent. He's the Incompetent Incumbent. The facts are simple: you don't blame a former President on your own failures after you've been President the last three and a half years. Obama tries to...his supporters try to...but you end up looking foolish and they've had a lot of practice at that. Obama has no victories that he can proudly tout and play up...any 'victory' he has enjoyed have long since proven to be detrimental to the American people either economically or socially. His Obamacare, strangely enough, hasn't been a focal point of the re-election commercials and neither has any of the pet projects with the EPA, etc. etc. In a twist of irony, Obama really can't campaign on any solid issue he holds near and dear to his heart because the general public, in reality, do not support those issues with the same kind of zeal that he does.

This leaves the Obama campaign to resemble more or less a long-running attack ad.

This Obama re-election campaign, the way I see it, is based pretty much on attacking Romney first and foremost and then filling the airwaves with more Utopian fantasies, flat out lies, and insidious goals for "the next four years" rather than telling the voters why he deserves "the next four years" in the first place. In my opinion you should get re-elected if you've done a good job and he certainly hasn't done so which is why he can't fill his re-election commercials with any positives that he's accomplished. It's all attack, attack, attack as he blames others for his own incompetence.