New GOP video hits Obama on terrorism

Yeah, they're trying to change alright, change like it's 2004. I think they're getting scared after seeing the internal polling that shows Dems catching up to them on security.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — House Republican leader John Boehner released a lengthy Web video Thursday suggesting Democrats are not keeping Americans safe — part of what GOP sources tell CNN is a renewed political effort to push a historically winning issue for Republicans: national security.

"We're quite happy to be talking about national security," said a House GOP leadership aide, who requested anonymity to speak freely about internal strategy.

The aide insisted that Republicans have substantive, serious policy differences with President Obama on national security– especially with regard to his approach to dealing with detained terror suspects.

But the GOP aide also conceded Republicans believe those differences have a political upside for them.

"It's an issue that traditionally plays well for us," said the aide.

No Joke: Rush Limbaugh Speaking At CPAC 2009

By GottaLaff

"Wow" doesn't even begin to say it. I think I just did a comedic spit-take:

Rush Limbaugh will be the closing speaker at the major Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) gathering later this month, according to a message distributed to CPAC supporters, further bringing the brash conservative radio host into the forefront of Republican leadership.

A Mecca of sorts for conservatives, CPAC is a forum for political aspirants and activists to make their case to the party faithful. [...]

That Limbaugh would keynote the affair is a telling indication of just how lacking the GOP is for actual elected leadership.

Lacking? How about bankrupt? Desperate? Devoid of? Nonexistent?

Coleman campaign rejects ballot of election judge...who voted for him

By GottaLaff

Coleman is clearly desperate, but hopefully, he'll lose in spite of himself:

With Al Franken holding onto a 49-vote lead in the Minnesota Senate recount, incumbent Republican Norm Coleman seems to be pulling out the stops in his attempt to keep as many likely Democratic absentee ballots as possible out of the tally.

Election officials across the state are determining which absentee ballots were rejected improperly on Election Day, and both campaigns have to agree before a previously rejected ballot is counted. As the Star Tribune reports, Coleman rejected 59 of 60 ballots that were set aside in St. Louis County, which supported Franken. His decision to reject Shirly Graham's ballot was particularly shocking.

"I'm an election judge," Graham told the paper. "I expected to be the last person whose ballot wouldn't be counted."

Graham, who actually voted for Coleman, said she would consider going to court to have her ballot included.

Nate the Great of Five Thirty Eight gives us a warning:

There are a couple of things in the preceding paragraphs that the Franken campaign ought to be worried about. Firstly, quite a high percentage of absentee ballots were rejected -- 60 out of what had been reported yesterday to be 161 ballots under consideration in St. Louis County, or 37 percent. All but one of those objections were made by the Coleman campaign. Secondly, the Coleman campaign is getting away with blocking ballots for asinine reasons. In the case cited above, for instance, the ballot was rejected because the date provided by the voucher did not match the date the date provided by the voter. Not only is there no requirement that the dates of the signatures match -- there is no requirement that the signatures are dated, period (see the applicable statutes for yourself here and here).

He then goes on to say that while Normy is challenging in heavily blue areas, Franken could do the same by rejecting ballots in red ones.

Indeed, Coleman has been trying to skew his advantage, requesting the inclusion of 650 additional ballots from heavily red counties.

Let's hope that Toker Norm's tactics don't work.

Speculating about speculation

By GottaLaff

I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and speculate that there will be many, many more instances of destructive, meaningless speculation about Team Obama in the years to come. Obviously, that's a very safe thing about which to speculate, which sadly makes my point.

Here is today's latest headline from Politico:

Obama to absolve Emanuel in gov. scandal

You know why that's a headline? Because for weeks, all the other headlines have been similar to these:

• Blagojevich scandal: Rahm Emanuel and Jesse Jackson Jr face new revelations
• Emanuel: I'm Getting Death Threats Over Blagojevich Scandal
• 45% Suspect Obama Team Involved in Blagojevich Scandal
  

We have become nothing more than a society of voyeuristic vultures circling around the What-Ifs gleefully provided to us by frenzied media gotcha-mongers desperate to avoid the fate of the Big Three and AIG. Ratings are their god.

The results: Their Nielsen numbers rise, their standards sink, and Team Obama is indelibly defiled by the residual droppings excreted by rabid gossipmongering counterfeit journalists who destroy lives with the same ease with which they mangle the English language.

Those are some achievements. I'd be willing to bet that the Peter Principle will continue to be even more relevant in the foreseeable future. But that would be mere speculation.

Dick Morris Blames Bush Recession on Obama

Seems to me Mr Toe-Sucker Morris is getting a wee bit desperate, no? Not too happy these days.

Republican Mailer In Ohio Targets Wright, Says Obama's "Friends" Are "Hostile To America"

By GottaLaff

A quick copy and paste before I rush off to work, and it involves our Cliff:

The Republican Jewish Coalition -- which recently hit Pennsylvania mailboxes with a mailer implying a vote for Obama could produce a second Holocaust -- is now hitting Ohio with a wave of incendiary new mailers that directly target his association with Reverend Wright.

"Barack Obama's friends and advisors: Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israel, even hostile to America," reads the mailer, adding that his associates harbor "anti-Israel views" that are "dangerous, naive and reckless."

A second mailer attacks Obama on Israel with a picture of the Wailing Wall, a holy site whose use in a political attack could prove offensive to many Jews.

Ironically, both mailers, which are presumably targeted to Jewish voters, landed in the Columbus-area mailbox of Cliff Schecter, the author of the anti-McCain book "The Real McCain." Schecter sent them in to us.

(click on the images to enlarge)

These accuse Obama of supposedly backtracking on his support for an undivided Jerusalem, which is strongly disputed by the Obama camp:

Schecter also says he received a copy of the Pennsylvania missive on the Holocaust, meaning that the Republican Jewish Coalition's campaign is active in multiple states.

See labels.

From the Dep't. of Desperation: Republican Congressman tries to prove Bill Ayers wrote Obama memoir

By GottaLaff

This is $10,000 worth of pathetic:

Nutball Congressman Chris Cannon (R-UT) tried to hire an Oxford don to use his special computer program to prove that Obama's memoir was actually written by Bill Ayers. The program "can detect when works are by the same author by comparing favourite words and phrases." Apparently, he got cold feet after the he learned that the Oxford academic, Dr Peter Millican, would release the results publicly no matter what they showed.

Yes, it cost Cannon $10,000. More:

Robert Fox, a California businessman and brother-in-law of Chris Cannon] contacted Millican, who said : “The $10,000 was a standard fee for 25 hours’ work. He sent me electronic versions of the text from both books.”

Millican took a preliminary look and found the charges “laughably unsubstantiated”. A deal was agreed for more detailed research but when Millican said the results had to be made public, even if no link to Ayers was proved, interest waned.

Millican said: “I thought it was extremely unlikely that we would get a positive result. It is the sort of thing where people make claims after seeing a few crude similarities and go overboard on them.”

He said Fox told him that Cannon had got “cold feet about it being seen to be funded by the Republicans”.

This is who Utah elected to represent them. I'm sure they'll be thrilled by his priorities, not to mention his sense of ethics.

Three more days.

VIDEO-- Desperation Time: Gramm-pa McCain's spokesman speechless + Bonus Hillary Fliers!

By GottaLaff

They are running on fumes. Smelly, noxious fumes:


CNN's Rick Sanchez discussing Rashid Khalidi with Gramm-pa's spokesman Mike Goldfarb. Oh-h-h, suh-nap!

And as if that weren't enough, look who's er, borrowing Hillary. (click on images to enlarge)

Responds Hillary spokesperson Kathleen Strand: "It is safe to say Hillary Clinton does not approve this message. She made history earning 18 million votes and has urged everyone who supported her to vote for Barack Obama because they have so much more in common with him than they do with Senator McCain. Voters should not be distracted by last minute, desperate attempts that claim otherwise."

Pathetic losers.

Because Bigger Always Wins

That's a real life adult male in front of that sign. Hysterical. Think it's going to work? Via Matt.

From the Dep't. of Desperation: IWRC* Palin intros "Ed the DairyMan"

By GottaLaff

IWRC*, meet Desperation:

Joe the Plumber, meet Ed the Dairyman.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of about 10,000 supporters Sunday in a Roswell airplane hangar, not only making a reference to Joe the Plumber, but alluding several times to "Ed the Dairyman" after seeing someone in the crowd holding a sign identifying himself that way.

She warned voters about Democratic plans to raise taxes "on America's hard-working families and our small businesses and a lot of folks just like Joe the Plumber and Ed the Dairyman out there."

Laffy the Blogger is warning voters that IWRC the DimBulb is grasping at Flexy the Straw.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

VIDEO: Witness the hypocrisy of Gramm-pa McCain on robocalls

By GottaLaff

Background here and here. If you haven't read those posts, please take a look before you watch this video. The hypocrisy is astounding.

If this is how he responds to the pressures of a losing campaign, imagine what he'd do under the much more intense stress of a world crisis against a "real" adversary. At this point, Britney Spears is showing better judgment. From Fox News Sunday:


H/t: SharonTomisakTX

Joe Biden: "I think other parts of the bathroom are coming."

By GottaLaff

Joe Biden yesterday:

“We cannot be complacent about this, man. You know what these guys are going to do,” Biden said to a crowd of several thousand outside of Las Vegas.

“You know, as that old saying goes, I thought they already threw the kitchen sink, but I think more is to come. I think other parts of the bathroom are coming. I don’t know, man, they’re going up and getting the bathroom sink. So look, we have a lot of reason to be encouraged but it is far, far from over.”

I think that what's inside one part of the bathroom has already hit the fan. Gramm-pa McCain and IWRC* Palin are desperate. Their smear tactics and lies are all they have left:

Sun-Times endorses Barack Obama for president

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Gramm-pa McCain's manufactured momentum

By GottaLaff

What's going on here:

Something is a little bit funny when Matt Drudge is treating 1-2 point gains for McCain in the Rasmussen and Zogby tracking polls as "BREAKING" news.

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has a theory:

The McCain campaign is planning on a major "reboot" of its campaign in some point in advance of Wednesday night's debate. This will take on something of the form that Bill Kristol advocates in his must-read Monday AM piece in the Times, including some combination of (i) pledging to run a positive campaign; (ii) firing/demoting Steve Schmidt and or/Rick Davis; (iii) apologizing for his campaign's tone. [...]

What the McCain campaign really, really doesn't want is for this move to be portrayed as desperate stunt. [...] ...and Bill Burton and Robert Gibbs must be foaming at the mouth waiting to spin something like this.

The only way for McCain to do that is for him to convince the media that he already had the momentum. [...] They will suggest that McCain found his voice, and made the "maverick" move of telling off the Beltway Republicans who were urging him to go for blood. They will suggest that the reboot is a continuation of this strategy, and that -- as the Zogby poll so obviously attests to! -- voters were already responding favorably to McCain's new tone.

[T]hey'd seem to have little left to lose, and if the media is reminded of the "old" McCain, they may tend to give his narrative the benefit of the doubt.

It's a level red alert. Grab the duct tape and plastic sheeting.

The racist solution

By GottaLaff

I'm sorry to do this to you, but get ready:

Now imagine if Obama supporters posted the equivalent of this about IWRC* Palin or Gramm-pa McCain.

It seems like the pushback over this disturbing image made the blogger responsible for nonsense to delete his post.

...but is he remorseful?

Well, it is gone. I'll tell you why. The point of the posting was being lost and the post itself was becoming the story. Which I never wanted to happen.

The point is, I made the far left have a knee jerk reaction. I also gave them something to talk about.

Again, as I stated in the actual posting itself, I never, ever wished any harm come to Obama, at all. I was simply making a point and doing exactly what the left is doing to Sarah Palin.

This is what we're doing to IWRC? Really? Has anyone seen any Democrat anywhere post any graphic images encouraging her murder?

This is what it's come to. The Republican party has self-destructed. It's devolved into a vast stinking garbage heap of malignant bigotry.

Hypocritical Republican pretense of patriotism and flag pins is now reduced to nothing more than fomenting hate and violence. It's despicable, outrageous, and... well, if I had a functioning brain today, I'd come up with something more coherent. At this point, any other words that comes to mind are unprintable.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

H/t: Chris

If inciting hatred doesn't work, try fixing the economy

By GottaLaff

I can just see Gramm-pa McCain's To-Do List now:

1. Throw every smear possible at Obama.
2. Hope voters hate him.
3. Hope voters get ugly.
4. Realize voters are getting violent.
5. Offer half-assed concessions.
6. Change subject to something that's actually relevant. Quick.
   
7. Try "the economy". Obama uses that one, and it seems to work.

Politico has the exclusive:

As part of a plan to reinvigorate his flagging campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is considering additional economic measures aimed directly at the middle class that are likely to be rolled out this week, campaign officials said.

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.

Gramm-pa McCain Shifts to Nearly All Negative Ads

By GottaLaff

What else does he have left?

TPM finds Sen. John McCain's campaign "has now shifted virtually 100% of his national ad spending into negative ads" attacking Sen. Barack Obama.

Analysis shows that as of October 1, McCain's $1.3 million weekly is being broken down as follows:

• Nearly half a million on "Dome," which attacks "Obama and his liberal allies" in Congress for favoring "massive government."
• A little more than half a million on "Mum," which attacks "Obama and his liberal allies" as "mum on the market crisis."
• Much of the remaining money on "Overseas," which says that "Barack Obama and his liberal allies are to blame" for jobs going overseas.
• The small remainder is going to a positive spot, the "Original Mavericks" ad.

This is a dramatic shift from the period before he suspended his campaign when he spent approximately half his ad money on the positive "Original Mavericks" ad, and around half on the negative "Dome" spot.

Desperate measures for desperate times, eh Grammps?

Gramm-pa McCain's fate hangs on three states

By GottaLaff

It's down to this:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) now must win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Minnesota in order to get enough electoral votes to win the presidency, his campaign says. [...]

McCain's political director, Mike DuHaime, told reporters on a conference call three hours before debate time that the campaign plans "an aggressive" front in Maine, a solidly Democratic state that gets virtually no attention in presidential races.

The sudden attention to Maine, which is getting some of the staff McCain is moving out of Michigan, reflects what a squeaker McCain expects.

Maine is not a winner-take-all state — the only other one that splits its electoral vote is Nebraska). And McCain aides, perhaps optimistically, are suggesting he can win one electoral vote by picking up one of the Pine Tree State’s two congressional districts. [...]

McCain has very limited ways to win, with no room for error. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) still has many routes to the White House and so can afford to campaign on a much broader playing field. [...]

McCain figures that winning one of those three big remaining swing states, plus those he considers safe, would put him 10 shy of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win.

Scrounging for electoral votes now would make me very uncomfortable if I were Gramm-pa. Which I'm not. Which I'm more than a little thankful for.

H/t: TheKingFiphtin

McCain To Urgently Suspend Campaign Due To Dire Financial Situation.... Tomorrow After 230 Speech

Wow, some emergency eh?

Via Americablog-

If this was so important, why didn't McCain suspend his campaign NOW and head back to the Capitol ASAP? Instead, he's waiting til tomorrow -- and, not just tomorrow, but tomorrow after he speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative. So, for McCain, the crisis is important enough to bag the debate on Friday, but not important enough to head back to the Senate immediately.

As Hunter puts it, they may not recognize him when he finally gets there-

Some fun facts about John McCain: Of all Senators, John McCain has been the most absent. There have been 643 votes taken in the current Senate session: McCain has missed 412 of them.

McCain has not voted in the Senate since April 8th. Since March, he has missed 109 of the last 110 votes.

He missed votes on the GI Bill, energy policy, and in 2007 he missed "all 15 critical environmental votes in the Senate" -- giving him a 2007 rating of 0% from the League of Conservation Voters. Zero percent? I don't think that's fair. I think they should have given him an "incomplete", and told him that he had to stay for summer session if he wants to graduate from the Senate.

Need a giggle? Go here.

Campaign, Debate Suspension Open Thread

Video of MSNBC coverage of announcement.


I'm going to go looking around at the smart peoples take on this. Right now it seems they think this is some sort of power grab, that it is not genuine.

Chris Bowers-

It appears that McCain's move is clearly designed to one up Obama's earlier move. What a rat------. Obama makes a move behind the scenes, McCain makes him wait on an answer, and then announces this at the same time. This is a totalrat----

Via Kos-

The Obama campaign's reaction to John McCain's call to delay Friday's debate:

"The debate is on," a senior Obama campaign official told ABC News.

Now let's see if John McCain can walk and chew gum at the same time.

They're starting to get desperate

Other than just trying to blame the Dems for the financial meltdown, now they're frothing over being called out on the truth by, gasp, the media!!

John McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, harshly attacked the New York Times in a conference call today, after the Times reported that McCain's campaign manager had worked, indirectly, for the mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

"Whatever the New York Times once was, it is today, not by any standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day attacks the McCain Campaign, attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama," said Schmidt.

(snip)

Schmidt, who has been foced to steadily raise the volume on attention-getting ads and statements like this one, as they become daily fodder, called the Times "completely, totally, 150% in the tank for the Democratic candidate."

Schmidt took as his example of a "compliant" media the lack fo reporting on Joe Biden's son's work as a lobbyist.

"His son is a lobbyist for the credit card and banking industry," he said. "The Obama campaign is surrounded by people who have worked in the lobbying industry."

Biden's son said he was leaving the lobbying business earlier this month. (Here's the Times's story on it.)

Ben hits it on the head in another post about the McCain campaign blathering on about Obama and Ayers-

This is a bit more of, incidentally, of what Jonathan Martin described as "'Hey, look over here' politics" — the campaign's urgent attempt to change the subject from the economy.

UPDATE- Added video via TPM.