As the McCain campaign sinks lower and lower in the polls, the level of their desperation grows greater and greater. Case in point, a mailer they are sending out in Virginia and Missouri which evokes memories of 9/11 and makes shameless accusations against Barack Obama.
This is the front of the mailer:
Inside is this. Notice the statement at the bottom:“Islamic extremists want our laws changed, our culture destroyed and our families converted. We don’t. What is there to talk about?” The implication being that either Barack Obama wants to do the same, or is sympathetic to those that do.
And what did Senator McCain say when asked if he was proud of this piece of garbage? “Absolutely.”
Just more of the “respectful” campaign we have come to expect from the Republican nominee.
Two new polls released yesterday, one by Pew and one by NBC News/Wall Street Journal, show that John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has turned into an unmitigated disaster. Her negatives are rising at an alarming rate and, if you can believe this, the list of voter’s biggest concerns about McCain’s candidacy now has Sarah Palin at No. 1, and continuing George Bush’s policies at No. 2.
She is also losing the support of women that she was allegedly put on the ticket to attract, and is turning off independent voters at an ever-increasing rate. And if that wasn’t enough, Gov. Palin has made McCain’s age an issue that it wasn’t in previous polls. In baseball terminology that is known as the golden sombrero, Sen. McCain, 0 for 4.
Here’s how the numbers break down. From Pew:
* 49% now have an unfavorable view of Gov. Palin, up from 32% in mid-September.
* 60% of women under 50 now have an unfavorable view, up from 36% in mid-September.
* 53% of all women have a negative view of Gov. Palin, up from 38% in mid -September.
* 56% of independent women have an unfavorable view of Palin, up from 28% in mid-September.
* 27% of all independents have a very unfavorable opinion of Palin, up from 10% in mid-September.
* Gov. Palin has maintained her support among the Republican base, you know, the “real Americans” with the same 83% approval she had in previous polls.
* 34% now say McCain’s age is an issue, up from 23% in mid-September.
From NBC News/Wall Street Journal:
* 55% say Palin is not qualified to serve as president if the need arises.
Just as an aside to all the “guilt by association” zealots out there, on the list of the top 4 concerns about Obama, his relationship with people like Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright ranks dead last. See, I told you so.
Apparently Governor Palin’s vast knowledge of foreign policy by virtue of being able to see Russia from her front porch, and her rather unique interpretation of the Constitutional powers of the vice-presidency is not impressing the voting public.
I am so angry this morning I can barely steady my finger long enough to write this post. The blatant racism that has been unleashed by the Republican Party in the closing weeks of this presidential campaign, and particularly since Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama yesterday on Meet The Press, makes me sick to my stomach.
First of all, it is as if the usual Republican suspects–Buchanan, Will, Limbaugh, Gingrich, et al, had their statements ready before Powell made his announcement. Powell endorsed Obama simply because he is black, they all spewed. Obviously these GOP mouthpieces didn’t listen to a word Gen. Powell had to say.
He gave a well-reasoned, well-thought out, detailed argument for his decision. Powell did much more than endorse Obama for president, he issued a scathing indictment of the Republican Party as a whole. See for yourself:
Then the tirades from the Republican Bigotry Brigade began.
Pat Buchanan: “Alright, we gotta ask a question, look would Colin Powell be endorsing Obama if he were a white liberal democrat.”
George Will attributes support for Obama to white guilt: “Barack Obama gets two votes because he’s black for every one he loses because he’s black because so much of this country is so eager, a, to feel good about itself by doing this, but more than that to put paid to the whole Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson game of political rhetoric.”
What Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have to do with anything is anybody’s guess. Oh I forgot, they’re both scary black men, just like Obama. What’s the matter George, you couldn’t work Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X in there somewhere?
Rush Limbaugh went even further: “Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race, OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I’ll let you know what I come up with.”
Not to be left out of the ‘scare white Americans with references to angry black men’ chorus, Newt Gingrich said on This Week that Obama would govern the country “like Reverend Wright.”
Now keep in mind these are some of the same neo-con chicken hawks who were singing the praises of Gen. Powell when he was useful to them in helping make the case for George Bush’s invasion of Iraq.
But now that he dares to stray off the Republican plantation and speak his mind rather than blindly support the Party nominee, he is branded as having based his decision solely on Obama’s skin color. I guess in the eyes of the GOP bigots Powell is not ‘one of the good ones’ anymore.
As the McCain campaign continues it’s efforts to divide America, campaign spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer appeared on MSNBC yesterday and made the distinction between Northern Virginia, that would be the part of the state that Sen. McCain’s brother referred to as “communist country”, and the “real Virginia”, the part of the state that, according to Ms. Pfotenhauer, is “more Southern in nature.”
Here’s the video:
“More Southern in nature.” A curious phrase. Whatever could she mean? Would this be part of that “Southern nature” to which Ms. Pfotenhauer is referring:
As I watched Chris Matthews interview Congressman Michelle Bachmann from Minnesota on Hardball last night I could not believe my ears. Surely no one this stupid could ever be elected to Congress. I immediately checked the calendar Nope, it’s not April 1st. Then I thought, this must be a parody, maybe a clip from SNL. Nope, it’s Friday night.
The more she rambled reality finally hit me, this is for real. This is an actual member of the House of Representatives saying these ridiculous things. That’s when my incredulousness turned to depression and all I could do was to shake my head and lament, this is what has become of the Republican Party.
She went through the entire litany of Sean Hannity/GOP talking points. Radical, anti-American, Ayers, Wright, Rezko, liberal, leftist, etc., etc., etc., the usual suspects. And just when I thought I had heard it all, at the conclusion of the interview Congresswoman Bachmann began to channel Joe McCarthy. The media should investigate members of Congress for anti-American behavior, she said.
I expected the next thing out of her mouth to be that she was re-convening the House Un-American Activities Committee and would start hold hearings ASAP. I could tell by the look on Matthews’ face that he as disbelieving of what he was hearing as I was.
See for yourself, but be prepared to have the desire to laugh, cry, and bang your head against the wall, all in less than a 9 minute time span. Take it away, Congresswoman Nutjob:
Minnesotans must be bursting with pride this morning.
This article from the Examiner says all we need to know about the regard, or lack thereof, in which Sarah Palin is held by those in D.C. when it comes to foreign policy matters.
Three of the four presidential and vice-presidential candidates were notified this week of the progress in the negotiations on the Status of Forces Agreement between our government and the Iraqis. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called John McCain, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Do you notice a name missing there? You betcha, that would be vice-presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin.
According to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack:
“Senator Obama is the Democratic presidential nominee and, obviously, is an important political figure in the United States. (Either) one of Senator McCain or Senator Obama are going to be president come January. And so just in terms of the courtesy and protocol aspects of this and the practical aspects of this, we thought it was appropriate to make those calls.”
I take that to mean that Gov. Palin is not an “important political figure” as far as the State Department is concerned. I think that’s what critics of Sen. McCain’s choice for a running mate have been saying all along.
Yet another video of the angry mob waiting in line outside a McCain/Palin rally, this time in Johnstown, PA. Before you go down the road of guilt by association, McCain supporters, take a close look at the people with whom you are associated.
Something that has gained little attention lately, as much of the media has been focused on all the “Plumber” hoopla, is that Barack Obama has been aggressively going after Fox News. He made reference to Fox’s bias in the debate on Wednesday night, saying this:
In his remarks at the Al Smith dinner last night, he again mentioned Fox and Rupert Murdoch. In an article in the New York Times, Obama made this observation:
“I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls,” Obama told me. “If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?
“I guess the point I’m making,” he went on, “is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it’s powerful. People want to know that you’re fighting for them, that you get them. And I actually think I do. But you know, if people are just seeing me in sound bites, they’re not going to discover that. That’s why I say that some of that may have to happen after the election, when they get to know you.”
Obama’s campaign manager David Ploufe has also recently referred to Fox News as the “24-hour ACORN channel.” With apologies to Mr. Ploufe, and in my own effort to be “fair and balanced”, that’s not entirely true. Better said, Fox has become the 24-hour ACORN and Ayers channel.
Don’t believe it? Take a look at the number of times the words Ayers and ACORN have been mentioned on Fox and their competitors at MSNBC and CNN since Sunday, versus the number of times the economy has been mentioned.
Fox MSNBC CNN
Ayers 525 340 279
ACORN 706 67 112
Economy 826 1032 954
For the mathematically challenged, that comes to 1,231 times the words Ayers and ACORN have been said on Fox, as compared to 826 times the word economy has been mentioned. That is nearly 50% more.
MSNBC and CNN combined have used the words Ayers and ACORN 798 times, as compared with 1,231 by Fox News alone. In contrast, MSNBC and CNN have each used the word economy more times than Fox.
Somebody remind me, which issue was it that 60% of the people said was the most important in the campaign. Was it the economy or was it Ayers and ACORN? I don’t seem to recall.
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