Monthly Archive for September, 2008

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Palin’s Introduction at the Republican National Convention

Posted on September 3, 2008, 11:28 pm. 0 Comments

Some stream-of-conscious notes on the Wednesday speeches of the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

The governor of Hawaii held up her hand in a symbol for “zero” when saying that neither of the Dem candidates had executive experience and the crowd started to chant “zero, zero, zero.” One of the funniest moments for me.

Romney was pretty aggressive in his speech and used very aggressive metaphors.

I really liked Huckabee’s speech. He was less aggressive compared to Romney, but he had a great anecdote meant to show how we should all be grateful to our military. I know this brought some tears to the eyes of some at the convention.

Next, the Governor of Hawaii, another person who became governor of a state after experience as a mayor, did a great job of talking up Sarah Palin.

Next, Rudy got a great reception. Rudy did a fine job of picking over Obama’s resume and belittling some aspects of it. The best part was his focus on the 130 times Obama votes “Present” while in the House. To Rudy, this indecisiveness was foreign and alien to him. As Rudy said, mayors and governors don’t get to vote “Present” when faced with tough choices or crises. Rudy also got in a bunch of digs against Obama and Biden.

Rudy did a great job. Each speaker I’ve seen thus far has been better than the previous.

Now, Palin.

The crowd loves her.

I think that Palin’s nomination as Vice President is the best thing to happen for the Republican party since the election of Ronald Reagan. Palin’s nomination marks the first time I’ve been excited about the election this year. It also marks the first time I’ve made a donation to a political campaign.

She introduces her family and talks about her life experiences.

She explains what the job of a small-town mayor involves. Paraphrasing, Palin said being a small-town mayor is “kind of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” Palin did a great job. Very well-spoken. The preceding speakers did an awesome job of warming-up the audience for her.

Now McCain makes it up on stage and the crowd goes nuts. It’s just too bad that McCain is an awful speaker. Hopefully McCain wil be able to show his strengths in the coming televised debates.

It Might Be Time to Pick Up Some Dell

Posted on September 3, 2008, 11:02 pm. 1 Comment

Last night I stayed up way past my normal bed time listening to excerpts of the Longleaf Partners Funds’ most recent annual presentation. Though the presentation took place back in May, I’m glad I eventually got around to listening. Mason Hawkins and Staley Cates are the two main guys who run Longleaf and they are true-blue value investors.

The two qualities that impressed me the most – aside from their impressive investing record at Longleaf – were their confidence in themselves and their wit. Hawkins and Cates responded to questions with commanding knowledge and reiterated their investing philosophies in a way that their audience could easily understand.

Turning now to stocks, Dell (DELL) is the top holding of the Partners Fund (LLPFX), taking up 9.3% of the portfolio. This is a huge stake, and after listening to the excerpts of this year’s presentation, I am pretty convinced that Dell is presenting a great opportunity for investors.

Cates and Hawkins go into some detail on the reasoning behind their Dell investment during their response to a general question about technology investing. According to Longleaf, Dell has:

  • strong, organic revenue growth;
  • cash flow growth that’s even higher;
  • value that’s growing even faster than cash flow because they’re buying back very cheap stock at a rapid pace; and
  • an opportunity to provide their products to everyone in the world

Hawkins says that Dell isn’t a tech company—it’s more an assembler or retailer.

Additionally—and more tantalizingly—Hawkins feels that Longleaf has “an eight- to ten-bagger” with Dell. Hawkins made this statement in May when Dell was at $20. Today, Dell is back at $20 after plunging the most in almost eight years after saying the U.S. slump in technology spending has moved abroad. I think this is probably another opportunity for Longleaf, Dell, and perhaps other like-minded investors to purchase even more shares.