Election Map Provided by the Associated Press
Oklahoma has the distinction of being the reddest state in this last election. Not only did Oklahoma give John McCain's campaign its largest margin of victory, we were the only state in the nation where President-elect Barack Obama lost every single country. That may change but it may take some time. We have often been a "lag state" when it comes to matters of politics and social justice.

The GOP is presently a regional party, not a national one. You might notice that it's presence is limited to Appalachia, the Deep South, the Plains States, and some of the Inter-Mountain West. The Democratic Party has all of New England, the Upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, some of the border South, the rest of the Inter-Mountain West, and all the West Coast. Oklahoma is at the crossroads of the Deep South and the Plains State. The Democrats are starting to make enroads into the Plains and South. GOP demographics are heavily weighed on the side of the elderly, rural Americans, and blue collar Whites, not exactly an expanding demographics. Democrats are gaining among the young, the college educated, and they are gaining in the suburbs. Democrats have gained Latino voters due to the GOP's radical anti-Latino agenda. Oklahoma is looking more and more like yesterday's America, and not a model for the rest of the country. We will see how long the Republicans are able to maintain the redoubt they have in Oklahoma.

Early Voting Ancedote

My pastor told me a story that came from the time he did his early voting. He and his wife went to vote on Friday. They stood in line with a elderly black woman who had to walk with the aid of a cane. They were in line for an hour and a half before they could cast their ballots.

My pastor, of course, talked with this woman at lengt while in line. After she finally was able to cast her ballot, he asked her what this moment, being able to vote for an African-American candidate, meant to her.

She said, "Well, preacher, the way I see it is that Rosa Parks sat down. . .

so that Martin Luther King, Jr. could walk. . .

so that Barack Obama could run. . .

so that our children can fly."

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.

Cat and I Early Voted Today

Early voting line at the Oklahoma County Election Board on Tuesday. Photograph from The Oklahoman web site.

Cat and I went to vote early today at the Oklahoma County Election Board. We had heard that the average voting time on Friday, the first day of early voting in Oklahoma, was about 3 hours. So we were prepared for a long wait.

Still it was amazing and wonderful to see the line to the polling place stretch out some 6 or 7 blocks out from the Election Board and down the street in front of the site. We ended up waiting 4 hours to vote, but was well worth it.

Over 5000 people voted on Friday when the polls were open from 8-6. Today, they closed at 1pm, but I expect the total voting will approach yesterday's total.

The crowd seemed to be overwhelmingly pro-Obama and Democratic Party. I did not see one person wearning campaign material for McCain or any Republican. I saw many wearing buttons and shirts supporting Obama and other Democrats, including moi.

I wore my "Super Obama" t-shirt that I got from StylinOnline.com.

It caused a great reaction, as you might imagine. I had several people ask to take my picture. There was even a camera crew of students from OU doing a documentary about the presidential race who saw the shirt and asked for an interview.

We had a great time, and it did not seem like it took 4 hours, till we got finished and realized that our legs were very sore from standing around on the parking lot surface for so long. Still it was a small price to pay to be able to take part in history!

Powell Endorses Obama

This is a major development. First, it absolutely ends the "pals around with terrorist" slime that Palin has been slinging around. Second, it vettes Obama in the one area McCain has had a slight advantage: foreign policy. Third, it insures that Obama will be able to hold on to the headlines for the next 3 or 4 days. This is time that McCain desperately needs to shift the momentum of the race. Finally, it trumps the Lieberman endorsement of McCain. Lieberman has no standing in the Democratic Party since he went Independent. I fully expect him to be dismissed from the Democratic caucus if the Democrats fall short of getting to the magic 60 in the election (or if they can get it without him). Powell, on the other hand, is still respected by many moderate Republicans and most Independents. We could see the "Obamamentum" become a tsunami. At least, I hope so.
CNN story

How Low Can They Go?

In the Sewer?
from Politico

Cindy McCain lawyer invokes Obama drug use

John Dowd, Cindy McCain's attorney, complained in a letter to New York Times executive editor Bill Keller earlier this month that the paper had scrutinized the GOP nominee's wife but not investigated matters surrounding Barack Obama including his youthful drug use.

"You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father," Dowd wrote in a two-page letter sent to Keller while the paper was reporting a piece about Cindy McCain.

The McCain campaign released the missive late Friday night in response to that story, to be published in the paper's Saturday edition. It's the first time anybody so closely associated with McCain has raised the issue.

A common tactic of trying to deflect your own guilt is to try to push attention to someone else. That way you don't have to deal with the wrong you have done.

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.

Let's See Them Put Lipstick on This

Note: The legislative committee was made up of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - 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.

I think this sinks the McCain campaign.

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

Poll Finds VP Debate Moves Voters Toward Obama/Biden

WASHINGTON — Undecided voters who watched Thursday's vice presidential debate really like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin but they're not certain she's ready to lead the country, according to the findings of a new Ipsos/McClatchy online poll.

If they had to vote immediately after watching the debate between Republican Palin and the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, 52 percent of the 456 undecided voters who were surveyed would vote the Obama/Biden ticket, the poll found.

It also found that Palin's performance in the debate did nothing to clinch undecided votes for her running mate, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Before the debate, those same undecided voters were leaning 56 percent to 44 percent for McCain. The day after the debate, the numbers tilted 52 percent to 48 percent for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
McClatchy Newspapers: "Poll: Palin more likeable, but Obama/Biden gets the votes" by Erika Bolstad

Election Trains

from The Daily Kos

Biden's Best Moment in the Debate

Palin tried to protray herself as somehow more in touch with average working families than Biden. His response really turned the debate in his favor.

David McKiernan v. George McClellan

I will comment on the Biden-Palin debate later, but I was interested in one thing Gov. Palin said. I know it was a minor gaffe, but it was still amusing. She called the NATO Commander in Afghanistan, General McClellan. He is in fact, General David McKiernan.

Just so there will be no confusion between the two generals, I have included their pictures.
General David D. McKiernan
General George B. McClellan
Let us hope that Gen. McKiernan has more success in Afghanistan than Gen. McClellan had with the Army of the Potomac.