Jon Stewart nails it again:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=187569&title=6-degrees-of-desperation
One of my favorite sites and the best part is this is a site put together by one of our own bloggers, Liz.
Save it to your favorites, awesome site!
I wish Liz really was Queen for a day...we'de be much better off
Editorial
Politics of Attack
It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember.
They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record " into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.
Despite the occasional slip (referring to Mr. Obama’s “cronies” and calling him “that one”), Mr. McCain tried to take a higher road in Tuesday night’s presidential debate. It was hard to keep track of the number of time he referred to his audience as “my friends.” But apart from promising to buy up troubled mortgages as president, he offered no real answers for how he plans to solve the country’s deep economic crisis. He is unable or unwilling to admit that the Republican assault on regulation was to blame.
Ninety minutes of forced cordiality did not erase the dismal ugliness of his campaign in recent weeks, nor did it leave us with much hope that he would not just return to the same dismal ugliness on Wednesday.
Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult. “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America,” Ms. Palin has taken to saying.
That line follows passages in Ms. Palin’s new stump speech in which she twists Mr. Obama’s ill-advised but fleeting and long-past association with William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and confessed bomber. By the time she’s done, she implies that Mr. Obama is right now a close friend of Mr. Ayers " and sympathetic to the violent overthrow of the government. The Democrat, she says, “sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.
Mr. McCain’s aides haven’t even tried to hide their cynical tactics, saying they were “going negative” in hopes of shifting attention away from the financial crisis " and by implication Mr. McCain’s stumbling response.
We certainly expected better from Mr. McCain, who once showed withering contempt for win-at-any-cost politics. He was driven out of the 2000 Republican primaries by this sort of smear, orchestrated by some of the same people who are now running his campaign.
And the tactic of guilt by association is perplexing, since Mr. McCain has his own list of political associates he would rather forget. We were disappointed to see the Obama campaign air an ad (held for just this occasion) reminding voters of Mr. McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five savings-and-loan debacle, for which he was reprimanded by the Senate. That episode at least bears on Mr. McCain’s claims to be the morally pure candidate and his argument that he alone is capable of doing away with greed, fraud and abuse.
In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. He long ago abandoned his signature issues of immigration reform and global warming; his talk of “victory” in Iraq has little to offer a war-weary nation; and his Reagan-inspired ideology of starving government and shredding regulation lies in tatters on Wall Street.
But surely, Mr. McCain and his team can come up with a better answer to that problem than inciting more division, anger and hatred."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/opinion/08wed1.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
In the debate last night the difference in Obama and McCain was both obvious and overwhelming. Obama was cool, calm and collected. McCain, angry, bitter and old. And that was only the visual that most American's saw. McCain lost without a word but his angry and bitter words nailed the coffin shut.
I was happy to see the polls say most American's saw the debate the way i did. Obama thrashed McCain.
He would not stand up against domestic terrorism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDlpWfLyYss
Pass this on. get the word out, please.
Just heard it on CNN. He gave up on Michigan!
Found a link for it:
http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/10/campaign_officials_confirm_joh.html
Palin May Find the Bubba Vote Isn't Enough: Margaret Carlson Commentary by Margaret Carlson
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Just as every Super Bowl is going to be the game of the century, tonight's face-off between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden is touted as settling once and for all, well, nothing. History tells us that no one but family members cast votes for vice president.
This one should matter, given that the next president may be a 72-year-old, four-time cancer survivor who lately is behaving more like a cocky fighter pilot than captain of the ship of state. Palin could be president on Day Two, Three or Four, before she had time to learn on the job, if such learning is possible.
Palin with a prepared text on a large stage does fine. Without a script, not so fine. Expectations for her at the debate in St. Louis are at about curb level because of some rocky interviews. The press complains that John McCain's handlers have kept Palin in a cocoon when actually she's been spending every waking minute with Katie Couric, an inexplicable decision whose proponent may be looking for other work now.
No matter what Palin does tonight it may not erase the impression left by Tina Fey and You Tube clips of Couric patiently asking, ``Can you be specific?'' without success. Many of Palin's answers floated a familiar noun (experience, reform, terrorists, maverick) untethered to an object or verb, let alone a principle or a policy.
Just a routine question about what Supreme Court rulings she disagrees with other than Roe v. Wade set Palin off on a winding highway. ``There's, of course, in the great history of American rulings, there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are those issues, again, like Roe v Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know going through the history of America, there would be others.'' And that's just the half of it.
Sizing Up Russia
Surely, Palin knows that proximity to Russia as a basis for foreign-policy experience is laughable. Yet here is her explanation: ``As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States... it's from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there next to our state.''
The performances have been so poor that several conservative pundits have said she isn't prepared for the job. Columnist Kathleen Parker suggested she step aside and cite the need to spend more time with her family, a claim that would ring truer for Palin than for most politicians who've used it.
Palin isn't likely to perform similarly in tonight's highly structured format. She's shown she can deliver zingers at earlier debates in Alaska. Even if the setting by a creek in Arizona seems low-key, the coaching has been intense by McCain's team. Their stated goal is to let Sarah be Sarah, to get her off ill- fitting talking points and on to even greater generalities like freedom, strength, prosperity, fairness.
Play the Refs
In case she bombs, the campaign has an excuse ready. Although the campaign signed off on PBS's Gwen Ifill well after it was known she has a book on race and the '08 campaign coming out in January, aides now contend that renders her a poor choice to moderate.
And let's not forget that Palin is personable, especially to Wal-Mart Moms. I'm more a Target Mom but I'd like to go shopping with her. In a Marist poll, 65 percent found her more likeable than Biden.
She described her constituency in an interview with radio host conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt: ``It's time that normal Joe Six-Pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.''
No disrespect for Joe -- my family's full of them -- but were Palin asked to spell ``cat'' and miss by two letters, the ``base'' would likely love her more.
Winning Bubba's Heart
But Palin isn't just winning the Bubba vote. She's won Bubba himself, Bill Clinton.
Part of the explanation is that a two-term Barack Obama administration makes a Clinton restoration almost impossible. Women age in dog years, and Hillary Clinton will be 69 times seven in 2016. The other is that Bill likes Palin's type. He's spoken excitedly of her (``I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there''), but in a barely audible monotone regarding Obama.
Perhaps the endless two-ways with Couric weren't a mistake. They deflected attention from McCain's sputtering: The economy is sound. No it isn't. The only way to save the country is to ``suspend'' his campaign, except for a few interviews and a New York photo-op before arriving 22 hours later at the White House to save the plan he was too busy to read.
Debate? Not without getting a bailout deal. No Deal? OK, just kidding. Back to Washington from Ole Miss because it's not right to ``phone it in.'' Arrive and spend the weekend phoning it in from his Arlington, Virginia, headquarters. To top it off, take credit for getting emergency legislation passed just before it didn't.
Tending to the Elite
Yesterday McCain said he's pleased Palin doesn't appeal to the ``Georgetown cocktail party person who calls themselves conservative,'' that her not going to Harvard ``is a plus.'' George W. Bush proved this can be a winning tactic.
Bush quietly made the elite more so by tending to their economic interests while playing up his love for Nascar Dads and barbecue. As long as you drop your g's, you can be way wealthier than Wal-Mart patrons (the Palins earn more than $200,000 a year) as long as you aspire to the same cultural class.
Obama's problem isn't only that he's black, it's that he speaks like the detached, analytic law professor he was.
With people's jobs, houses and retirement at stake, the elitist strategy might not work this time. After eight years of Bush, we may want to vote for the smart one this time, no matter where he shops.
(Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_carlson&sid=aUtyZjV.zXvw
I always like to know what's going on on the 'other side'. I receive emails from both sides...I donate and help Dems only. Just received this scary email and a good one from our Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy. We need to help Ted Kennedy PLEASE DONATE:
We're three-quarters of the way to our goal of $20,000 for the Committee for a Democratic Majority.Will you help push us over the top?
Please make a donation now:http://www.democraticmajority.com/60votes
In 2006, your support for the Committee for a Democratic Majority helped deliver a Democratic majority in the Senate. This year, your support can help deliver a 60-vote filibuster-proof Democratic majority for Barack Obama.
In the next four weeks, the Committee for a Democratic Majority will be providing urgently needed resources to Democratic candidates in close Senate races across the country.Every dollar we raise can make a difference in tight races across the country.
Please help us reach our $20,000 goal now:http://www.democraticmajority.com/60votes
Thank you for your support at this important moment. A filibuster-proof Democratic majority is within our grasp!
Sincerely,
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Here's why..the nasty GOP email!
"Dear Fellow Conservative,
You'd think it was the 1970s all over again.
Liberals are resurrecting Jimmy Carter's failed tax, energy and economic plans.
Iran is saber-rattling against the West.
And Hanoi Jane Fonda is stumping for liberal Senate candidates.
That's right, last Saturday night, Jane Fonda and all of her far-left Hollywood liberal friends raised $1 million for Democrat Senate candidates with one goal in mind -- to break our Senate firewall and seize total control of our government!
"Everything now is 'Obama, Obama, Obama,' but we're also concerned about the Senate, which is critically important no matter who wins the White House. We need to give the Democrats a majority totaling at least 60 senators." (Politico, 6/18/08)
These Hollywood liberals understand the stakes. A 60-seat filibuster-proof super majority means conservatives would be powerless to stop the liberal agenda in the Senate. And, the consequences would be disastrous:
Liberal Supreme Court justices Skyrocketing taxes Higher gas prices No new drilling Giveaways to trial lawyers and Big Labor bossesOur nation stands on the brink of taking a disastrous turn to the left.
Hollywood may not be on our side, but we have you!
How can you help? (they want 11 bucks)
Why $11? It represents $1 for each of the 11 Republican Senate seats that liberals are targeting in 2008.
Unless you dig deep and help us to maintain the Senate firewall, the liberals may very well succeed in their campaign to control our whole country. Therefore, I am asking you to send as much as you can, enen $11 will make a difference, to help us fight back."
Obama is up in almost every poll. The best part is he the highest he has ever ben in the projected electoral vote:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/
Fivethirtyeight is one of the most accuarate and has Obama way up.
2. McCain 'fake suspends' his campaign and makes the negotiations of the bailout worse at a White House meeting.
3. McCain and many of the repukes in Congress said mcCain saved the day by rounding up the needed votesd from repukes.
4. Pelosi gives a partisan speech on the floor (99% true).
4. 2/3 of Dems voted for the bill, 1/3 of the repukes voted for the bill...Bill failed to pass because the rupukes were upset with Pelosi's speech on the floor.
5. Stock market drops 777.68 points (largest drop in history) and now thye are talking about depression lurking.
6. McCain blames Obama for bailout Bill not passing and all economic consequences of the bill's failure to pass and anything else that may go wrong on in the country over the next millenium.
It isn't about Palin being a woman...there are many woman who could be a VP. It's about Palin. The lies and even worse the constant barrage of the same lies once the truth is out. And really....this woman is CLUELESS. It's a slap in the face to all woman every time she opens her mouth.
The first major decision McCain makes was picking a VP. He put politics before country on this pick.
Oh..... and the little record Palin has... is more like a dictatorship then Democracy. Her way or the highway. Maybe she wanted that bridge so badly so she'd have a place to go after people 'got to know her'. Welcome to Nowhere...population, one...Palin!
I'm a woman and I approve this message!
The federal government has arranged for Washington Mutual to
sell its deposits and some branches to J.P. Morgan Chase,
people briefed on the matter said Thursday night.
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na
Okay folks...this is getting downright embarrassing. Watch this...short (thank God).
http://www.jedreport.com/2008/09/omfg-pt-2.html
When John McCain held an unexpected news conference mid-Wednesday afternoon he addressed the current economic crisis with direness previously unseen. His campaign would be suspended, he told reporters, in order to work on the bailout legislation in Congress. The debate scheduled with Barack Obama on Friday night, he added, could be postponed.
Observers, critics, even fellow Republicans, were left wondering: where did this sense of urgency come from? After all, it was this past Sunday that McCain hinted on 60 Minutes that he would support the bailout -- "we have to stop the bleeding" -- only to express deep criticisms on Monday and then admit he hadn't even read the three-page proposal on Tuesday.
"I have not had a chance to see it in writing," said the Senator. "I have to examine it."
The move permeated with political opportunism: an attempt by McCain to grab the leadership mantle he did not own and divert attention from poll numbers that were plummeting. Indeed, on Wednesday morning a Washington Post-ABC poll had McCain trailing Obama 52 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. The internals were even worse: 54 percent of white voters with economic anxiety favored Obama.
So McCain changed the script, announcing his imminent departure from the campaign trail. And Democrats in Congress were left (somewhat angrily) scratching their heads.
"We're trying to rescue the economy, not the McCain campaign," said Rep. Barney Frank.
"I'm delighted that John is expressing himself on this issue," said Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. "I have heard form Obama numerous occasions these last couple days. I have never heard from John McCain on the issue... I'm just worried a little bit that sort of politicizing this problem, sort of flying in here, I'm beginning to think this is more of a rescue plan for John McCain and not a rescue plan for the economy."
McCain's mixed messaging on the bailout proposal was not just bizarre. It was emblematic of his actions the entire week. Indeed, the Senator has been all over the map when it comes to addressing the current situation. When the market crisis originally surfaced, McCain - now infamously - was the one to declare that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Later he would call the situation the worst since World War II.
Read More »http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/25/obama-will-make-debate-a_n_129250.html
Posts
