First Rule of Rhetoric: Know Who Your Audience Is

from Talking Points Memo. Com

A reader in TPM sent in this story which shows a great deal about the McCain organization:

Interesting anecdote and probably a testament to ground organization. I have no idea what this means. Friday night (which happens to be the start of our Sabbath) my wife answered the phone to hear a man stating he was from the McCain-Palin campaign. He asked who she was supporting. She replied that we will vote for Obama. He replied with "but he's a f-----g n---er!". Before I get to my wife's response I'll first have to say that I understand desperation and I also understand that this pitch may actually work for a few people. I also understand that there are people who are whack-jobs phone-banking for both sides. But here are some facts:
My wife and I are Black. Citing the fact that Obama is a f----g n---er as a way to sway our vote may not be a great idea. My wife and I live in Maryland... Baltimore, MD.... One of the most African American areas of Baltimore Maryland. How on earth did our phone numbers get on to a McCain volunteers phone bank list of potential voters to be calling at this stage in the game? We have never received a call from the Obama campaign.

Just weird. Not sure what to make of it... but that's not a good sign of organization. If it did anything it made us want to donate more. BTW, the rest of the call went downhill from there. My wife prayed for forgiveness after the call.

Obama/Biden Go 4-4

So much for whipping Obama's, er, tukas.

How Much Are We At Risk for a New McCain Stunt

Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com has unveiled this new McCain Stunt Alert Level system ...

Economists Say "Obama Has Better Grasp of Economics"

In a telling survey, the journal The Economist, survey 142 members of the Bureau of Economic Research, America’s premier association of applied academic economics, on their analysis of the proposed economic policies and overall grasp of economic principles.

The detailed responses are bad news for Mr McCain (the full data are available here). Eighty per cent of respondents and no fewer than 71% of those who do not cleave to either main party say Mr Obama has a better grasp of economics. Even among Republicans Mr Obama has the edge: 46% versus 23% say Mr Obama has the better grasp of the subject. “I take McCain’s word on this one,” comments James Harrigan at the University of Virginia, a reference to Mr McCain’s infamous confession that he does not know as much about economics as he should. In fairness, Mr McCain’s lower grade may in part reflect greater candour about his weaknesses. Mr Obama’s more tightly managed image leaves fewer opportunities for such unvarnished introspection.

McCain rids his campaign of a racist

From Fox News-[Yes, I do read Fox News]

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign has ousted a prominent Virginia GOP figure who wrote a newspaper column mocking a potential Barack Obama administration.

A McCain spokeswoman said Bobby May was dropped this week from his job as McCain's Buchanan County campaign chairman.

May wrote in his column, "The (clarified) platform of Barack Hussein Obama," that if the Democratic senator were elected he would hire rapper Ludacris to paint the White House black and change the national anthem to the "Black National Anthem." [see my Oct. 6 post: "Virginia GOP Leader Writes Anti-Obama Racist Screed "]
The column originally appeared in The Voice, a local newspaper.

May has worked on dozens of state Republican campaigns.
I give Sen. McCain credit for doing the right thing here. Perhaps we can conduct the last 3 weeks of this campaign on the issues, not on ad hominem attacks.

Is the Anger Seen at McCain/Palin Rallies Racist?

When John McCain and Sarah Palin began their personally attacks against Obama, they unleashed a torrent of invective that surprised even them. They have tried, not always successfully, to reign in their audiences.

My question is how much of the visceral invective at these events is motivated by racism and the fear of having America's first black president elected in a little over 3 weeks. I bring in evidence the following photoshopped picture which appeared on the right wing online message board "The Free Republic."
Caption: Shoeshine Boy
The picture appears among the subscribers reaction to a discussion on the possibility of McCain getting some post in an Obama administration. The picture is accompanied with the text, "Back at ya, Obama. Palin has a job for you as well when she is in the white house:". The poster goes by the name "spodefly," and while his posting privileges seem to have been revoked, The Free Republic has yet to take down this piece of racist garbage as of this writing.

Other postings on the web site a full of lies and smears that seem to be creeping into McCain and Palin's rhetoric and advertisements.

I do not believe that Sen. John McCain or Sarah Palin are racists, but they bear some responsibility for feeding the hatred of racists who support them.

Frank Keating Tries to Slime Obama

Frank Keating never should have been governor of Oklahoma for one term let alone two. He would have never won in 1994 if there had not been a strong third party candidate in the race who took away votes from traditionally Democratic southeastern Oklahoma. The Murrah Bombing kept him in office for another term. Once out of office, he has been floundering around to get back in. Bush turned him down as a possible Attorney General when it was revealed Keating had been given a $250,000 "scholarship" from a donor who wanted to promote a scheme to drug prisoners.

Later his wife and son were defeated in their Republican primaries when they ran for Congress and the Oklahoma legislature respectively.

Keating now is a flunkie for the McCain campaign. Recently, he reflected McCain desperate attempt to tear down Obama's character with the following interview with Dennis Miller, comedian and conservative radio talk show host:

"He ought to admit, ‘You know, I've got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the center,'" Keating, a co-chair of McCain’s campaign, said Obama should tell voters. "I mean, I understand the big picture of America. But he hasn't done that."

"Man of the street"? Frank, don't talk in codes to us. Go ahead and admit that you want to remind us that Barack is black.

Who is Concerned Most About the Middle Class?

According to the New York Times, in the 3 debates held thus far, Obama and Biden have used the phrase "middle class" a total of 21 times. McCain/Palin have used it twice.

The Keating Five Now and Then

John McCain may now try to claim being officially reprimanded for his part in the infamous "Keating Five" was motivated by politics, but he didn't always think this way. Here is what McCain has said in the past about his actions and judgement:

I created the appearance of impropriety so it was my -- I was guilty, and therefore did not represent the people of my state in the manner which they expected of me. [CNN, Larry King, 10/12/02]

The biggest mistake that I made in my life was attending a meeting with four other senators and four regulators because of the appearance of impropriety, and it is something that will always be a mark on my record, and something that people will judge me for the rest of my life. [GOP Presidential Primary Debate, 1/7/00]

Despite my recovery, the Keating Five experience was not one that I have walked away from as easily as I have other bad times. Twelve years after its conclusion, I still wince thinking about it and find that if I do not repress the memory, its recollection still provokes a vague but real feeling that I had lost something very important, something that was sacrificed in the pursuit of gratifying ambitions, my own and others', and that I might never possess again as assuredly as I once had. [McCain, Worth the Fighting For Page 204]

Daily Kos

Virginia GOP Leader Writes Anti-Obama Racist Screed

One test of character involves how one behaves when the going gets tough. By that measure, Bobby May, the McCain campaign chair in Buchanan County, Virginia and correspondence secretary for the Buchanan County Republican Party, has failed his test of character. Virginia may quite possibly gives its 13 Electoral Votes the Democratic nominee for president for the first time since 1964. May reacted to this possibility by publishing the following racist commentary in The Voice, a local newspaper:

"FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology classes taught in all churches - raise taxes to pay for this mandate. Put Rev. Jeremiah Wright in charge...."

"DRUG CRISIS: Raise taxes to pay for free drugs for Obama’s inner-city political base...."

"2ND AMENDMENT: Under Obama will only apply to gang-bangers, illegal aliens,
Islamo-Fascist terrorists, and Senator Jim Webb’s aide...."

"FOREIGN RELATIONS: Appoint Rev. Al Sharpton as Secretary of State, Jesse Jackson as UN Representative, and let Bill Clinton handle all other "foreign relations" ... As long as Hillary doesn't find out...!"

"THE WHITE HOUSE: Hire rapper Ludacris to “paint it black.” Taxes to be increased to buy enough paint for the job plus spray-paint forgraffiti...."

"THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: Raise taxes to send $845 billion, most of it to Africa so the Obama family there can skim off enough for them to free their goats and live the American Dream...."

"NATIONAL ANTHEM: Change to the "Black National Anthem" by James Weldon Johnson...."

"US CURRENCY: Update photos to reflect US diversity; include pictures of "great Americans" such as Oprah Winfrey, Ludacris, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Paris Hilton, and
Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson (Obama's new Secretary of the Treasury - 50 Cent refused position after learning that he would lose his crazy check if he accepted the nomination)...."

"US FLAG: Replace 50 stars with a star and crescent logo; red stripes changed to green to represent Obama’s tree-hugging radical environmentalism and his lack of experience. Flag lapel pins, having become a substitute for “real patriotism,” will henceforth be banned...."

There are times when attacking someone else's character, reveals more about your own lack of character. I hope that Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin take a lesson from this. They should at the very least condemn and censure Mr. May for this vile attack.
Source: TPM: Cafe Talk

Election Trains

from The Daily Kos

Sarah Palin Took Gifts Got Special Considerations as Mayor

The former home of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Wasilla Lake in Wasilla, Alaska, is seen Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008. Two months before Palin's tenure as mayor ended in 2002, she asked city planning officials to forgive zoning violations so she could sell the house.
(AP Photo/Al Grillo)
from the Associated Press

Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends received special benefits more typical of small-town politics as usual, an Associated Press investigation shows.

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception — and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free "awesome facial" she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The "absolutely gorgeous flowers" she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

Obama Emerging as the Clear Winner of 1st Debate

from MediaCurves.com
Note How Well Obama Does with Independents
This should surprise many Republicans

John McCain vs. John McCain

The First Debate

from "The Daily Kos"
To be honest, I couldn't watch the first debate. When I want someone to win so much, I have a hard time watching because I get so nervous. I have always been that way. Can't explain it.

However, from the reaction I have seen in the reviews of the event, Obama did well. He was fighting on McCain's ground since the debate's topic was "Foreign Policy," and at the very least, Obama stood even with McCain.

That in itself is a victory for Barack Obama.

In addition to this, two polls suggest that those who did watch the debate felt that Obama was the clear winner. A CBS poll of undecided voters showed that 39% felt Obama won while 24% felt McCain won. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp of those who watched the debat found that 51% of those polled thought Obama did the better job in Friday night's debate, while 38% said John McCain did better. However, CNN noted that more Democrats than Republicans watched the debate. (Perhaps Republicans felt as I do about the debates.)

In any case, McCain is trailing in the polls, and he needed something to shift the momentum. It appears that he failed in this mission.

One other thing that has to be noted is the fact that McCain flip-flopped on his vow not to attend the debates until the negotiations on bail out deal had been resolved. McCain wanted to appear to be some type of major player in their resolution. He failed on that mission also, and had to go renege on his vow.

Is McCain Becoming The Issue In This Race?

Does Obama have the cooler head?
A truism of politics is that when a candidate becomes "the issue" in race, in other words, when a candidate's personality or credibility comes into question, then the race is over, and the candidate has lost.

John McCain is perilously close to becoming a major issue in this campaign due to his recent antics in regards to our country's financial crisis. By his seemingly impetutous decision to suspend his campaign and insert himself into the negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders, he has raised questions regarding his judgment and his temperment. This quote fairly sums up my impression of what McCain has demonstrated about himself:

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology. In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain... My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."
-- Former McCain adviser Craig Shirley, quoted by the Huffington Post.

The question the American people need to be asking is, which person has demonstrated a cool head and steady nerves during this crisis? Who would they want to have at the helm of this country during those inevitable times when it seems that all hell has broken loose? Obama is the man for me.

McCain Didn't Even Read Treasury Proposal

from Wire Services
Though Sen. John McCain says the nation's current financial crisis requires "all hands on deck" because "the whole future of the American economy is in danger," he admitted in an interview in Cleveland on Tuesday that he hadn't even read the Bush administration's proposed rescue plan that was unveiled over the weekend.

Obama and McCain Tax Plans Compared

from VotefromAbroad.Org

Each of the candidates has a tax plan, but they differ quite a bit. Here is a chart showing the plans. McCain's plan focuses tax cuts on upper-income taxpayers. Obama's focuses them on lower-income taxpayers. However, with the government about to spend something like $1 trillion to buy nonperforming mortgages, it is unlikely the new President will have a lot of budget room left for tax cuts of any magnitude unless they are offset by tax increases of the same magnitude. In that respect, Obama's plan might be doable since it is budgetarily neutral, raising taxes on the rich by as much as it cuts taxes for the middle class. McCain's plan cuts taxes for everyone and thus reduces federal revenue and increases the budget deficit.
from The Washington Post
Read the entire Washington Post article here.

McCain Has A Staff Meeting

With the Rest of his 'Good Ole Boys'

Paris Hilton for Prez Ad

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

I love good satire, and this is cool, hot even.