Hillary vs. Obama

Have you put any thought to the politics involved in the 2008 presidential race on the democratic side? On a personal note, looking back 10 years from now, I think 2008 go down as the year that I finally cared enough about the race that I paid attention to it before the parties actually chose their candidate.

What's interesting to me is how hard the democrats are fighting over getting their preferred candidate nominated. Granted, everyone wants their candidate to be chosen as their parties' candidate and eventually as our nation's president. But what's more important? The party or the candidate?

In a day and age where party platforms dominate individual politician's views, I'd say partisan politics have a lot to do with an individual's vote. I wish it weren't so, but until we see a legitimate 3rd party, it will continue to be so. Case in point: as of late, the biggest difference Hillary could spar with Obama on was on the issue of universal health care for pets. That's right, pet insurance. For the social conservatives out there that support Obama, you have to ask yourself this question: is Obama pro-choice, or is he just supporting the democratic party view? I digress . . .

If Hillary gets nominated, at this point, it appears that it will be due to her influence with the Superdelegates. Is that what the democratic party wants? The so-called party of the people will have in effect chosen their people's candidate based upon what the entrenched, established politicians chose for them?! Businessweek.com had a good article on this very topic. What are her chances to win the presidency if she gets the nomination? Due to her polarizing personality, I think McCain will clearly have the best shot at the White House.

What if Obama wins his party over and becomes the democratic nominee? After this bitter fight, does he have the charisma to overcome the bitter taste Hillary supporters might feel to earn their vote? Will the 50% who have supported Hillary actually put their confidence in and vote for Obama? Now that's a loaded question! There are so many levels you could answer that question on . . .

Then look at McCain. You'd have to believe that he is only growing stronger in the minds of voters as they watch Obama and Hillary fight for their party's nomination. Especially in the minds of moderates and independents. I believe, in the end, that Obama, Hillary and the democratic party will have divided themselves and their constituents (at least for the 2008 presidential vote) and that McCain will be the ultimate beneficiary of the democratic party's disorganization. Look back over the past 8 years at Bush's public approval ratings. Who would have guessed that any Republican, much less McCain, would have a chance at the White House? Maybe he's the ideal Republican to front the party during such tough times?

The the other question everyone is looking for an answer to right now is who "old man" McCain's running mate will be? He's won his party's nomination and has several months to go before the Republican National Convention. How is he going to keep his name in the news when there is no real news to report? (By teasing the press!)

Getting past all of this, what's the social conservative to do in an election like this? Hope and pray that McCain chooses the right running mate . . .

Can't edit Windows Contacts in Vista

My parents visited us this past week, and as it usually happens, my mom gives me the opportunity to tune up her computer. This time was nothing more than usual and ended up the usual way - various adware that somehow installed itself had to be uninstalled and several program configurations needed tweaking.

One that I got stuck on was with Windows Vista Contacts. I'm used to working with Microsoft Outlook and Windows XP and not as much with Vista. Vista has contacts built into the user profile. Even if you have Outlook installed, you can choose to use Windows Contacts instead.

On a side note, as of late, I've become very frustrated with Vista. It all stems from "Windows Vista compatible" Acer laptop we bought on Black Friday, 2006. Capable is the operative term here . . .we've had so many problems with it. From outdated and incompatible drivers to OS crashes due to insufficient memory, this laptop is SO Vista incapable! I found out just recently that there is a class action law suit that's been approved against Microsoft, Acer and other OEMs on this very issue.

OK, back on topic. It was time for my mom to finally, fully convert her email over to a web-based solution. The spam filters that Gmail has are so much better than what her local ISP offers, meta tagging beats folders hands down, and the thought of a hard disk crash is one less worry with web-based email.

So the real point of this post is to share that, for those who have suffered with me in trying to edit, import or export Windows Contacts, there is an answer! The root of the problem has to do with wab32.dll and wab32res.dll, Outlook files that aren't compatible with Vista. In short, removing these files fixes the problem. I won't bother to explain the solution in detail because it is well documented at vistax64.com. Renaming these files allowed me to export her contacts to a csv file and then upload them to Gmail.

Importing her email was the other issue. I couldn't figure out how to export from Outlook 2000 to Google. It might have had something to do with Outlook's incompatibility with Vista. I didn't go there. Using Mozilla Thunderbird and Google's instructions made for a time consuming but easy transfer.

Thanks for blessing us!

Over the past few years, Amanda and I have been humbled by friends and family who have supported us to bring Jude to be with us. Words of encouragement, prayers, gifts, meals, etc.

Thank you for being such a blessing to us! We truly appreciate all you have done to bless our family. Words can't express our gratitude . . .when the time comes, please let us know how we can return the favor!