Here's an excerpt that stood out to me, although it's not typical of the piece. It stood out because he managed to crystallize a few of the glaring contrasts between the candidates in one sentence:
Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign “suspension,” a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage.
GObama! This is a feel-good post. Get ready to smile:
Nine Days before the Feb. 5 presidential primaries in Missouri and Illinois, this editorial page endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain in their respective races. [...]
Over the past nine months, Mr. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has emerged as the only truly transformative candidate in the race. In the crucible that is a presidential campaign, his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure consistently have been impressive. He has surrounded himself with smart, capable advisers who have helped him refine thorough, nuanced policy positions.
In a word, Mr. Obama has been presidential. [...]
Meanwhile, Mr. McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear.
He even shrank from his own campaign slogan, “Country First,” by selecting the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall ran as William Jennings Bryan’s No. 2 in 1896. [...]
Finally, only at this late point do we note that Barack Obama is an African-American. Because of who he is and how he has run his campaign, that fact has become almost incidental to most Americans. Instead, his countrymen are weighing his talents, his values and his beliefs, judging him not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.
That says something profound and good — about him as a candidate and about us as a nation.
As U.S. economic concerns intensify, ranks of blue-collar females are reconsidering everything from Sen. Obama's policies to their comfort level with his race.
Are your ears in the mood for more music?
Sen. Obama trailed Sen. John McCain by 12 points among these women just two weeks ago, but has since closed the gap. According to a Wall Street Journal poll conducted the weekend of Oct. 4, the two senators are now running even, with 45% of such voters giving each candidate the nod. The reversal is one of the main reasons Sen. Obama is gaining ground in swing states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana -- all of which have large rural and blue-collar populations.
Okay, it's music with a little cacophony thrown in:
Petra Jameson, a black Obama supporter, says she's noticed similar changes taking place at Kokomo's two big auto plants. Just a few weeks ago, "when we had some people come around to ask workers to vote for Obama they were told 'I am not voting for that N-word.' People said that." At the time, union organizers who support Sen. Obama were stunned by how many working-class women even refused to take literature with his picture on it. But now, says Ms. Jameson, 35 years old, some people are turning. "They are losing money [in their retirement accounts] daily. They may have to get over race." [...]
For this election, some analysts see heightened economic tensions overcoming any racial prejudices or hang-ups. "Women are much more sensitive to kitchen-table issues -- they are usually responsible for balancing family budgets," says Katherine Newman, a Princeton sociologist who studies the working class. "Racism is what you indulge in if everything else is in order and you can let your prejudices hold sway. If your family is in trouble you can't afford it."
But what about IWRC* Palin? There's never been such a "one of us" woman, not ever. Why she even supports shooting helpless wolf pups in the head. Can't get much more "one of us" than that, can ya?
[S]upport for Gov. Palin is also fading among working-class women. A month ago, 47% of blue-collar women said the Alaska governor was qualified to be president while 40% said she was not. Now those numbers have reversed: 43% of white working-class women in this past weekend's Journal poll say Gov. Palin is qualified to be president; 48% say she isn't ready.
It's nice to see issues take precedence over prejudice. It would be even nicer if that were a permanent state of affairs.
Among the measures being considered are tax cuts – perhaps temporary – for capital gains and dividends, the officials said. [...]
McCain advisers hope that by being specific, he can pose a contrast to Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who has been benefited from taking a vague but consistent approach to policy during the economic crisis.
Top McCain supporters have been agitating for a more robust economic package. It would give McCain something fresh to talk about on the stump, and dilute the perception that he’s relying mostly on attacks in the final stretch.
See "To Do List".
Officials could not say what the package might include because more than 30 ideas have been put in front of McCain during the current crisis, and they said he has to choose what to unveil and when.
“That’s up to McCain,” one official said.
Among the ideas that have been considered are a bigger tax deduction for middle class mortgages, and more a more robust loan program for small businesses. But officials said the front-burner ideas all dealt specifically with markets.
McCain’s new package would amount to a do-over from the hasty introduction of McCain’s mortgage buy-up program, which was widely criticized by conservatives and was seized on by Obama as a fresh target.
So top McCain advisers want him to throw more out there, hoping it’ll stick.
If this weren't so deadly serious, I'd be laughing my head off right now.
The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election. [...]
The nation has had 102 major-party tickets covering 51 presidential elections over more than two centuries. And we've never had a ticket in which both candidates on the same ticket were responsible for ethics violations before a national election. McCain/Palin is the first.
It makes the whole "reform" pitch a little more difficult, doesn't it?
"More" is the key word here. It was always a stretch.
...Lynn Zinser at her NYT hockey "Slapshot" blog just posted that Sarah Palin, in her much-ballyhooed appearance dropping the puck at the Philly Flyers' opener, was greeted by "resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd." Of course, Fox Sports was more "balanced," observing on its site, "The crowd reacted with a mixture of cheers and boos at her appearance." [I]t's hard to judge because of the music.
But Zinser's post had a lot more in mind: "I would object to this sideshow whichever political party it involved. Having vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin drop the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers’ opener Saturday night was problematic not because it was Palin — Flyers owner Ed Snider’s decision under the flimsy excuse of 'honoring' hockey moms — but because it is injecting politics in a place it should not be." More:
The biggest problem: when Palin came out to onto the Wachovia Center ice Saturday night — greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd — the the two hockey players who had no choice but to appear with her in that photo op were turned into props in a political campaign. If Rangers center Scott Gomez or Flyers center Mike Richards wanted to make some sort of political statement, that would be fine, but in this case, they were thrust into a situation not of their choosing. Snider put them there with his ill-advised mixing of politics and sports.
The level of discomfort has been palpable for the Rangers’ two Alaska natives, Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky, as they have been asked questions about Palin and the election in recent weeks.
Paddy posted about one of Gramm-pa's crazies down thread. It looks like Grammps is scrambling to undo the damage. Too little, too late again, McHatemonger. You can try to look like the good guy all you want, but you've spent months smearing Obama. You can't undo it all now with only 3 weeks to go.
Pastor Arnold Conrad’s invocation before Gramm-pa’s speech in Davenport, Iowa included:
“I also would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god–whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah–that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons.”
"While we understand the important role that faith plays in informing the votes of Iowans, questions about the religious background of the candidates only serve to distract from the real questions in this race about Barack Obama's judgment, policies and readiness to lead as commander in chief." - Wendy Riemann, Midwest Regional Communications Director
That's some apology. It has sincerity not written all over it.
But I have a few questions. So that Obama-is-a-scary-not-like-us-Muslim push from your side is a figment of our imaginations? Oh, it isn't. It, too, is serving as a distraction then?
Next one: Whose judgment, policies, and readiness to lead are really in question? Answer: Gramm-pa's and IWRC* Palin's.
Okay, one more: Who projects their own miserable smallness and vulgarities onto the other candidate? Answer: Gramm-pa and IWRC Palin.
The latest Ohio Newspaper Poll shows Sen. John McCain clinging to a narrow lead over Sen. Barack Obama, 48% to 46%.
Last month, McCain led by six points.
Said pollster Eric Rademacher: "We've gone from a race that looked increasingly like it was going toward John McCain to a race that now is more or less even."
A new Research 2000 poll in Florida finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 49% to 44%.
Key finding: "Obama, long the favorite of the youngest votes, now leads 72-year-old McCain by 7 percentage points among the 60-plus age group. The oldest voters were about equally divided in last month's poll."
As I said down thread in the Gramm-pa McCain version, it's a relatively slow day, so I put together a collage of the essence of Barack Obama from some of the photos I had in my stash. Sometimes a visual gets the idea across more concisely and effectively than a written post.
I had so many photos I wanted to use that I ended up jamming too many in here, but who cares. I wasn't going for artistic value, just message. Just click on it to enlarge:
It's a relatively slow day, so I put together a collage of the essence of Gramm-pa McCain from some of the photos I had in my stash. Sometimes a visual gets the message across more concisely and effectively than a rant:
Obama was blasted day in and day out for his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It's IWRC* Palin's turn, right corporate media?
Max Blumenthal's remarkable video/report: This is the first original, on-the-ground video report from inside the church where Gov. Sarah Palin was baptized and spent over two decades as a member, the Wasilla Assembly of God. The video features the only known footage of the man who publicly anointed Palin for higher office, the Kenyan witch hunter Bishop Thomas Muthee, during his return to Wasilla this September. Though filming was not allowed, I managed to capture through hidden cameras Muthee's violent invocations against "The Enemy" and the "python spirits.” I also spoke with Rev. Howard Bess, whose book, "Pastor, I Am Gay," was removed from Wasilla's public library after Palin personally pressured the librarian. Those who embrace spiritual warfare see Palin as nothing less than the Anointed One, a modern day Queen Esther, as one anti-abortion protester told me on a rainy night in Anchorage. See for yourself.
A man brought a stuffed monkey doll wearing an Obama sticker to a Palin campaign event in Johnstown, Ohio. Realizing he was caught on camera, he passed it off to a child he didn't know.
Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis accused Gramm-pa McCain and IWRC* Palin of inciting hate, and for good reason (via, and via):
"What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement issued today. "As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."
Lewis didn't accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities.
"During another period, in the not too distant past, there was a governor of the state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."
Lewis's sharp words may be dismissed as those of a partisan Democrat in a campaign season. But the former head of SNCC and hero of Selma is somebody who McCain has lavished praise upon over the years, including admiring him in a book on courage and bravery and repeatedly invoking Lewis's name in public appearances.
Appearing with Barack Obama at a forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in August, McCain included Lewis as one of "three wise men" he would consult as president.
"He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest," McCain said of Lewis.
Now, Lewis is castigating McCain in the harshest of terms:
"As public figures with the power to influence and persuade, Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all. They are playing a very dangerous game that disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy. We can do better. The American people deserve better."
Here's what Gramm-pa had to say about that:
Congressman John Lewis’ comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale. The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign. I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.
I call on Senator Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.
As usual, Gramm-pa's a tad confused. The only brazen and baseless attacks have been on Obama's character. As for the character of some of those hardworking Americans who "cheer" for Grammps and his hatemongering sidekick, they shut down the chances for any reasonable debate with their menacing mob mentality, ignorant, slanderous howls and alarming bigotry... my friends.
The global financial crisis has caused a dramatic shift in the latest Newsweek poll. With four weeks left in the presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama now leads Sen. John McCain by double digits, 52% to 41%, among registered voters.
Just a month ago, the same poll showed the race tied.
Key findings: "Underlying Obama's surge in support: An historic boiling over of dissatisfaction with the status quo. An astounding 86% of voters now say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, while a mere 10% say they are satisfied. That's the highest wrong track/right track ratio ever recorded in the Newsweek poll."
Governor Sarah Palin announced today the addition of long-time Alaskan, Larry Persily, to her Washington, D.C. office. Persily currently works as Editorial Page Editor at the Anchorage Daily News.
"Larry has excellent qualifications - knowledge of the issues, experience in the public and private sectors, and analytic and advocacy skills," said Governor Palin. “I am pleased that he has joined our team.”
Persily will serve the Governor as Associate Director for Oil, Gas, and Renewable Energy; Commerce; and Transportation. He will be responsible for monitoring, analyzing, and advocating with respect to the following issues: ANWR, natural gas pipeline, OCS development, pipeline corrosion, international trade, Arctic Council, surface transportation, aviation, telecommunications, commerce, renewable energy, and finance.
“There are plenty of people around the world who are praying to their god, be they Hindu, Buddah, or Allah, that (McCain’s) opponent wins. I pray that you step forward and honor your own name.”
Sarah Palin on Saturday denied abusing her power or violating state law in the dismissal of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, putting her at odds with the findings of a state ethics report that determined she did abuse her power as governor.
As the Republican vice presidential nominee departed her Pittsburgh hotel on Saturday morning, a reporter asked Palin if she abused her power in firing Monegan, which was the conclusion of the state investigator's report released late Friday.
“No, and if you read the read the report you will see that there was nothing unlawful or unethical about replacing a cabinet member," Palin responded before boarding her campaign bus. "You got to read the report, sir."
Here's the thing, IWRC, you are allowed to "replace" someone as governor. But according to the report we "got to read", you are not allowed to do this:
"Gov. Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda," the report states.
What she didn't tell worshippers gathered at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown was that her appearance that day came courtesy of Alaskan taxpayers, who picked up the $639.50 tab for her airplane tickets and per diem fees.
An Associated Press review of the Republican vice presidential candidate's record as mayor and governor reveals her use of elected office to promote religious causes, sometimes at taxpayer expense and in ways that blur the line between church and state.
Since she took state office in late 2006, the governor and her family have spent more than $13,000 in taxpayer funds to attend at least 10 religious events and meetings with Christian pastors, including Franklin Graham, the son of evangelical preacher Billy Graham, records show.
Oh dear. She's not nearly as mavericky and outsidery as she claimed! Does that make her a liar? Or just someone who suffers from ethics lapses?
Big business was granted wide access to Sarah Palin's office during her first 20 months as Alaska governor, but she rarely met with labor, environmental or other groups pressing alternative views, her official calendar shows.
On at least three dozen occasions, Palin, now the Republican vice presidential nominee, spoke with executives and lobbyists working for an array of energy, mining and tourism firms with major investments in Alaska.
Among those who visited Palin's Juneau office multiple times were the chief executives of Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, as well as several dozen other top oil and gas company officials.
Bush III, Cheney II.
In an August interview with National Public Radio before being named John McCain's running mate, Palin declared: "I've had about two lobbyists, two, maybe three lobbyists who have snuck in [to her statehouse office] with a group of people. So I can't say they've never been in, but we don't invite lobbyists in."
According to her calendar, however, Palin has met with more than a dozen registered lobbyists since taking office in December 2006.
Maybe it simply means she can't count. I wouldn't doubt it, considering she also doesn't read.
[...] Palin's aides were aware before the meetings that lobbyists would be coming.
"My personal experience is they've always welcomed discussions," Reed said.
In several cases, registered lobbyists met with Palin and returned for second sessions.
But... but... IWRC said that she doesn't invite lobbyists in. Gosharootie! What's a voter to believe now?
The Times obtained Palin's calendar under a Freedom of Information Act request. The governor's office turned down a similar request for calendars and schedules pertaining to her husband, Todd Palin, who reportedly has played a prominent role in her decision-making.
Gov. Palin's office said her husband does not keep a calendar.
In addition to meetings with big business and lobbyists, Palin's calendar indicates that she filled her daily schedules with dozens of media interviews.
That access seems a far cry from her recent complaints that the national media has "filtered" her message as a vice presidential candidate. According to aides, Palin wooed reporters in Juneau with plates of brownies and telephone calls on their birthdays.
My stars! Would ya look at that? IWRC was so anxious to get noticed that she made brownies for all those snoopy, filtery reporters! She must have had more coherent answers back then... way back in the old days... so, so, long ago... when she was still reading newspapers and answering questions.
"She craved publicity and the poll ratings that came with it," said Larry Persily, a former Alaska journalist who worked for Palin in Alaska's state office in Washington until earlier this year.
The calendar also details Palin's frequent stays at her home in Wasilla, Alaska -- which became a source of controversy when it was learned that she collected per diem allowances while away from the governor's mansion in Juneau.
TVNewser has obtained a cease & desist letter sent by lawyers from Fox News Channel to AirNet Group Corporation, the company that hosts John McCain's campaign Website.
The copyright infringement notification stems from this ad currently playing on the McCain-Palin site. It includes grainy images and audio of reporting from Fox News correspondent Eric Shawn. The notification states, "Fox News requests that you immediately cease and desist from any further use of the copyrighted material and that access through the Website to the Material, and any other Fox News materials, be immediately disabled."
NARRATOR: John McCain admits if the election is about the economy, he’s going to lose.
(Photo of Obama….Graphic quoting the McCain campaign as quoted in the Daily News on October 5: "If we keep talking about the economy we’re going to lose.”)
NARRATOR: Now as Americans lose their jobs and savings…
(Still photo of stockbrokers)
NARRATOR: ...McCain’s resorting to smears and false attacks.
I grew up in Miami Fl, in the 70's and involved in theater. Before that my mom worked with two wonderful women (in the 60's no less!) that were a known couple. I don't remember a time that I haven't had gay people in my life as friends, co-workers or acquaintances. My sincerest wish is for everyone to be judged on their soul, not their soul mate.
Note- swapped out this am for a YouTube clip for our overseas pals. Thanks for the heads up on the Hulu clips, I didn't know that they don't work for ya'll.
Over the weekend, it will brew, or stew, or smolder, or whatever culinary term we can think of. There are still e-mails to be examined, and details of TrooperGate to be discovered, studied, and rehashed by the media.
There aren't that many days left until November 4th. This was great timing. And all the "you betchas" and winks in the world can't deflect this one.
As I type this, Larry King just announced the Gramm-pa McCain Official Spin:
The governor acted properly, blah blah, but it was a partisan inquiry run by Obama supporters, blahblah. The Legislative Council overreached, made a tortured argument, blahblah. Palin will continue to cooperate.
Continue to cooperate?
Oh, and it's all Obama's fault. He's a terrorist, he held her at knife point and he made her do it.
I'm watching Larry King Live. Jonah Goldberg... well, 'nuff said, plus Stephanie Miller (who I think I was in another life), Lanny Davis, and some other Republican radio guy.
Jonah says the Palin report is nothing. Of course he does.
Lanny is somewhere in the middle.
Steph is snickering (not literally, but if you know her at all, you know she's laughing hysterically inside and that tomorrow's show will be killer).
They spent all of 5 minutes on this. They're already on to the campaigns. Larry King said the Palin issue isn't all that relevant to the campaign (in so many words). On to other matters...
I'll update as information comes in.
UPDATE: A few of my own thoughts:
Whether Republicans think she's cleared or not, she is now riskier than ever. Certainly not trustworthy.
If she hasn't "broken any laws", fine. She's still on the ticket, and that's where we want her.
Gramm-pa's judgment is even worse than it was an hour ago, if that's even possible. And that continues to work against him.
For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides
“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”
Finding Number Two:
I find that, although Walt Monegan’s refusal to fire Trooper Michael Wooten was not the sole reason he was fired by Governor Sarah Palin, it was likely a contributing factor to his termination as Commissioner of Public Safety. In spite of that, Governor Palin’s firing of Commissioner Monegan was a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority to hire and fire executive branch department heads.
Finding Number Three:
Harbor Adjustment Service of Anchorage, and its owner Ms. Murleen Wilkes, handled Trooper Michael Wooten’s workers’ compensation claim properly and in the normal course of business like any other claim processed by Harbor Adjustment Service and Ms. Wilkes. Further, Trooper Wooten received all the workers’ compensation benefits to which he was entitled.
Finding Number Four:
The Attorney General’s office has failed to substantially comply with my August 6, 2008 written request to Governor Sarah Palin for information about the case in the form of emails.
Sadly, the recommendations for action are all quite mild and minimal. Basically, that section acknowledges that it’s hard on people not to know whether their reports and concerns have been acted on, but given the confidentiality of personnel matters, it’s not possible to give complainants information about how the complaints were handled. So folks like the Palins and Heaths should be assured that action is being taken. Big whoop.
It will be all too easy for the spin to focus on the “concerned” family members and their “understandable” desire to know whether action had been taken. I LOVE that the first finding was Abuse of Power, but I fear that many of us had higher hopes than seem to be justified.
I expect that the Mad Dog will remain on the ticket, along with her lipstick and the corpse of her soul-less running mate. And the platform that she’ll do what’s Necessary (maverick maverick), even if it’s seen by some as an abuse of power, will make her even more popular with the little hate-filled “base” that attends her rallies and reveres her name.
A legislative committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has found she unlawfully abused her authority in firing the state’s public safety commissioner.
The investigative report concludes that a family grudge wasn’t the sole reason for firing Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan but says it likely was a contributing factor.
The Republican vice presidential nominee has been accused of firing a commissioner to settle a family dispute. Palin supporters have called the investigation politically motivated.
Monegan says he was dismissed as retribution for resisting pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister. Palin says Monegan was fired as part of a legitimate budget dispute.
The investigation was examining whether Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, fired a state commissioner to settle a family dispute. The report was also expected to touch on whether Palin's husband meddled in state affairs and whether her administration inappropriately accessed employee medical records. [...]
Lawmakers indicated they planned to release the report even though there was disagreement about its findings.
"I think there are some problems in this report," Republican state Sen. Gary Stevens. "I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye."
You don’t have to believe me, the hockey mom from Alaska, proclaiming that the war on terror, central front there, has been Iraq. Please, believe Gen. Petraeus, an American hero. Unfortunately, you gotta believe even bin Laden.
Obama always got it. The Center for American Progress gets it. The intelligence community gets it. Even Bush gets it. The newest NIE report confirms it. But IWRC* Palin and Gramm-pa McCain are still as out of sync with the rest of the world as they've always been.
Afghanistan is the single most pressing security threat in the war on terror. Now tell me again, who's better on national security/foreign policy?
The son of William F. Buckley has decided—shock!—to vote for a Democrat.
Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance. [...]
I have known John McCain personally since 1982. I wrote a well-received speech for him. Earlier this year, I wrote in The New York Times [...] a highly favorable Op-Ed about McCain, taking Rush Limbaugh and the others in the Right Wing Sanhedrin to task for going after McCain for being insufficiently conservative. I don’t—still—doubt that McCain’s instincts remain fundamentally conservative. But the problem is otherwise. [...]
John McCain has changed [...] This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. [...] A once-first class temperament [Laffy Note: Huh?] has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises [...] Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking? [...]
As for Senator Obama: He has exhibited throughout a “first-class temperament” [...]
I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. [...]
Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting for” silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.
So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.
With 25 days to go until the election, Barack Obama is presently at his all-time highs in four of the six national tracking polls (Research 2000, Battleground, Hotline and Zogby) and is just one point off his high in Gallup. He has emerged with clear leads in both Florida and Ohio, where there are several polls out today. He is blowing McCain out in most polls of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and is making states like West Virgina and Georgia competitive.
There's just nothing in there for McCain to hang his hat on.
Paddy wrote this up. Now here is what the ballot looks like. Nice, huh? As Paddy noted, usually "typos" have something to do with proximity of keys. The "B" key is nowhere near the "S" key on any given keyboard. And how hard is it to catch an error of this magnitude? Right answer. It's not.
County elections officials tell the newspaper that it was a typo that made it by three rounds of proof-readers. They also said the error affected just a few hundred voters, and that they will re-send corrected ballots on request.
By GottaLaff UPDATE: After that [the last quote in the post], McCain said of himself that he just thinks he'd be a better President of the the United States." Some in the crowd booed his statement and shouted, "No!"
After days of watching in silence, McCain calms the crowd at his Minnesota town meeting.
“I want everyone to be respectful. And let’s make sure we are, because that’s the way politics is done in America.”
Tells one supporter who says he’s scared of an Obama presidency:“I have to tell you, he is a decent person, a person that you do not have to be scared [of] as president of the United States.”
After a woman calls Obama an Arab, McCain interrupts to say:“No m’am, He is a decent family man, citizen.”
I'm sputtering. Words like "hypocrite", "nut case", "liar", "smear monger", "wtf", "give me a break" are coming to mind, among many others. Sputter, sputter... with lots of exclamation points and a few of these: $@#%!&&*!
"We want to fight, and I want to fight, but we will be respectful," McCain said to boos at first. "I want everyone to be respectful," he then said and people began to clap.
In response to a later question he added, "You can be respectful and point out facts," as he called on his supporters to point out facts to their neighbors but be respectful.
After that, McCain said of himself that he just thinks he'd be a better President of the the United States." Some in the crowd booed his statement and shouted, "No!"
Yeah, he must think we're that stupid. It has nothing at all to do with his mental deficit (as opposed to mental recession) and/or inability to stick to a so-called economic plan that lasts longer than 20 minutes. Or maybe he just gets off on trash-talking Obama, because he's grown weary of insulting his own wife:
Via Pam... IWRC* Palin, Gramm-pa McCain, be proud. For two people who claim to love this country, they sure have helped to create a lot of hatred:
In Gibsonville, NC, Tim Henderson has decided his distaste for Barack Obama should be channeled into bias against his supporters who wish to use his parking lot.
I don't know how many ways you can interpret it. If you're an Obama supporter, you've got an Obama sticker on your car, you're not welcome to park here," says Henderson.
Henderson's a McCain supporter who insists he won't tow anyone off his lot for political reasons; he's just throwing a little humor into the presidential race.
"I don't expect to go after anyone with a baseball bat. I would grin at 'em and laugh and ask 'em if they could read English," says Henderson.
But some people who park on his lot don't find it so funny.
"This is ridiculous," says Dave Dicke. Dicke works at a state agency across the street. The agency's employees have had an agreement to park on Henderson's lot for years. Some of them have Obama stickers on their private vehicles.
Henderson had planned to leave the signs up through election day, but yesterday afternoon, the mayor of the city, Lenny Williams, said that the signs will be removed as a result of an agreement with the lot owner.
And while you're at it, go to the back of the bus, you dirty, scary, different-from-us-terrorists. *In What Respect, Charlie?"
Andree McLeod just stopped by the Legislative offices, after the hearing this morning on her lawsuit against Gov. Sarah Palin and the state.
Looks like McLeod won at least parts of what she’s asking for – to force the governor to retrieve or preserve any e-mails she’s written on private accounts that deal with government business.
She carried a copy of the order signed by Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers.
“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the office of the governor of Alaska … are ordered to preserve all e-mails (including attachments thereto) sent between December 4, 2006, and the resolution of this litigation…”
But the judge didn’t approve another of McLeod’s requests, which would have forced Palin to stop using private accounts to talk about state business.
Now if only Bush/Cheney would produce their e-mails. You know, the ones that they haven't deleted yet.
Pretty soon they're going to claim that Sasha and Malia smiled at the couple. This is low. More and audio at the link. I think I've finally tipped over into loathing of this man.
The McCain campaign is now broadening their attack on Obama's past association with William Ayers to include Michelle Obama -- even though McCain has repeatedly said spouses should be off limits during the campaign.
The attack? Bernardine Dohrn, Ayers' wife and fellow former Weatherman, went to work in 1984 for the major Chicago-based national law firm of Sidley & Austin, and three years later, Michelle joined the mega-firm as well.
That's the entire attack. We wish we were joking. But we aren't.
(snip)
The attack on Michelle came on a McCain conference call with reporters this afternoon featuring John Murtagh, who has been hitting Obama over the Weather Underground's attack on his family's home back in 1970. Murtagh noted that Dohrn and Michelle Obama had both worked at the firm starting in the late 1980s.
The firm's Chicago office currently employs more than 500 lawyers. Murtagh didn't even bother alleging that the two even knew each other, instead suggesting that they might have. If so, he said, the Obamas have known the two longer than suspected.
"If it is true" that the two women knew each other, Murtagh said, "the relationship is almost a decade older than Senator Obama has acknowledged. And that can very easily be resolved by Senator Obama, by Mrs. Obama, by Mr. Ayers and by Ms. Dohrn."
Savor the headline. They are taking their biggest asset and sending it to West the f'ng Virginia!Wheee!
Palin has scheduled a bus tour through a state that until, roughly, now, everyone had assumed was safely McCain's.
West Virginia Democrats rejected Obama for "cultural" reasons in the primary, and it was a place where reporters gathered a lot of string on his race problem.
I heard this earlier and couldn't help thinking that if Mitchell could string words together to make a sentence, it could have been a bloodbath. Eakins is an idiot.
Sen. Barack Obama leads Sen. John McCain by 46% to 39%, according to a Fox News poll of registered voters.
Key findings: "Obama's advantage comes mainly from doing better among women, blacks, young voters, those with a college degree, and unmarried voters. He has increased his edge over McCain among women to 16 percentage points, up from a 4-point edge last month."
As someone who's been typing for a trazillion years, I can attest to the fact that the b isn't even in the same typing nerve area as the s. Jeebus. h/t the lovely and talented Tim.
TROY — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County.
The misspelling, which elections officials on both sides of the aisle insist was simply a typo, is causing embarrassment for the county.
''No question this is an honest mistake innocently done,'' said Edward McDonough, the Democratic commissioner. ''We catch almost everything.''
''This was a typo,'' said Republican Commissioner Larry Bugbee. ''We have three different staff members who proof these things and somehow the typo got by us.''
Officials say the flawed ballots were sent to approximately 300 voters. On row 1A Barack Obama's name is spelled Barack Osama.
note- State corrected from MI to NY thanks to Clancy.
A new site, YesWeCarve.com, provides downloadable stencils and professional directions for voters who want to hammer trick-or-treaters with an Obama appeal. Forget mass-made yard signs, say the organizers, and carve your own “Barack-O-Lantern.” Emphasis on The O — get it?
While Get-Out-The-Vote programs typically send volunteers to knock on doors, this effort capitalizes on a night when swing voters are the ones going door to door.
The project has a sleek, open-source feel, with logos that hew closely to the Obama campaign’s official design patterns, and an interface that invites visitors to upload their own homemade designs and lanterns. While the site’s major stencils feature standard Obama logos, for example, visitors can also see a more offbeat pumpkin headshot of Obama, submitted by Manuel Guzman from Tuscon, Ariz. [...]
Meanwhile, Obama has taken a lead in Halloween masks in some cities — beating McCain by two to one in Boston.
Are pumpkins elitist? Is this some sneaky new form of terrorism? Oh no! Trick or treat!
Sen. John McCain’s wife and father-in-law continued a lucrative business partnership with disgraced financier Charles H. Keating Jr. for 11 years after the GOP presidential nominee said he ended his close friendship with Keating in March 1987.
Cindy McCain’s business partnership with Keating in a real-estate development between 1986 and 1998 netted her a tidy profit, in addition to years of significant tax benefits. Her father, who died in 2000, earned similar returns.
What a snuggy-wuggy, close-knit family. I bet Gramm-pa McCain had a lot to say about this!
McCain’s campaign and his Senate office did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails concerning Cindy McCain’s investment with Keating.
Oh.
On Monday, McCain’s attorney, John Dowd, said in a conference call with reporters that McCain was not aware of his wife’s and father-in-law’s investment with Keating at the time it was made. “John was unconnected to that and unaware of it at the time and did not participate in it,” Dowd said.
Gee. Maybe I was a little premature...
However, during the Keating Five Senate Ethics Committee hearings in 1990-91, McCain testified that he was aware of the family investment with Keating in early 1986.
Under questioning from Dowd, McCain said he learned of the investment from a Hensley & Co. executive.
Oh. Never mind then.
Nor did the end of McCain’s relationship with Keating affect his immediate family’s business relationship with the financier. Cindy McCain and her father, James Hensley, remained investors in the Keating real-estate partnership that included a north Phoenix shopping center. The center sold in July 1998 for $15.4 million.
Their business relationship with Keating began April 15, 1986, when the two bought an 8 percent stake in Fountain Square Associates Ltd. Partnership. Cindy McCain and her father made the $359,100 investment through Western Leasing Co., a partnership they jointly owned. [...]
The Fountain Square sale generated the second largest amount of income from Cindy McCain’s array of investments in 1998, according to Sen. McCain’s financial disclosure statement. Only dividends from Cindy McCain’s investment in Hensley & Company stock, which exceeded $1 million, generated more income.
Cindy McCain’s and Hensley’s 1986 investment in Fountain Square earned the father and daughter team a nice return. Its greater value to the family, however, may have had more to do with politics than money. Their investment was made the same year that McCain was running for the Senate seat held by the retiring Barry M. Goldwater. Keating and his employees contributed more than $50,000 to McCain’s campaign, bringing their total contributions to McCain since 1982 to at least $112,000.
Remember, it would have been called the Keating Four if Gramm-pa hadn't been involved. Let's not forget that, either, okay? Okay.
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