Tag Archives: Obama

Palin Out Of The Loop On Iraqi Agreement

18 Saturday Oct 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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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.

Fair And Balanced? Not So Much

18 Saturday Oct 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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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.

I Told You So, Republicans

15 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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I hate to say I told you so, Republicans (not really) but I told you so. Your attacks on Barack Obama’s associations aren’t working. In fact, the opposite is true. McCain and Palin’s unfavorable ratings are rising and Obama’s favorables are at an all-time high since the attacks began. Thanks, GOP.

Before we go any further, these numbers are taken from a poll done by the New York Times and CBS, so I know some will dismiss it immediately as “liberal media bias.” You are free to leave at this point.

Now back to the polling data. About McCain’s attempts to tie Obama to William Ayers, the Times found this:

“After several weeks in which the McCain campaign sought to tie Mr. Obama to William Ayers, 64 percent of voters said that they had either read or heard something about the subject. But a majority said they were not bothered by Mr. Obama’s background or past associations. Several people said in follow-up interviews that they felt that Mr. McCain’s attacks on Mr. Obama were too rooted in the past, or too unconnected to the nation’s major problems.”

 

On the issue of favorability:

“Mr. McCain was viewed unfavorably by 41 percent of voters, and favorably by 36 percent. Ms. Palin’s favorability rating is now 32 percent, down 8 points from last month, and her unfavorable rating climbed nine percentage points to 41 percent. Mr. Obama’s favorability rating, by contrast, is now at 50 percent, the highest recorded for him thus far by The Times and CBS News.”

To show how poorly this attack strategy has worked, Palin’s favorable rating is now only 8 points ahead of President Bush, who is at an all-time low of 24%. Nice job Republicans, keep it up.

To show you how out of touch Republicans are at this point, take a look at this chart showing voter’s responses when asked which candidate has spent more time explaining his positions or attacking his opponent:

 

 

 

Almost half of the Republicans surveyed actually think that McCain has spent more time explaining his positions, talk about living in an alternate reality.

But then again, these are the same Mensa members that we see in line at McCain/Palin rallies, never mind.

 

 

McCain and Republicans Plumb The Depths of Decency

13 Monday Oct 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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Well so much for the charade that the McCain campaign was going to stop the constant personal attacks on Barack Obama and focus on the economy. Quite the contrary, the McCain people and the Republican Party are taking the guilt by association smear to the next level–equating Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden.

The chairman of the Virginia Republican Party is instructing volunteers going door-to-door to tell people that Obama and Osama bin Laden “both have friends that bombed the Pentagon.”

From The Jed Report:

With so much at stake, and time running short, [Virginia Republican Party Chairman Jeff] Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: “Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon,” he said. “That is scary.” It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama’s controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. “And he won’t salute the flag,” one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, “We don’t even know where Senator Obama was really born.” Actually, we do; it’s Hawaii.

 

Senator McCain’s response when questioned about this? You have to see it to believe it.

 

“I’d have to look at the context of the remarks?” Really? Tell me Senator, in what context would it be appropriate for a member of your campaign to say that there are similarities between a candidate for president of the United States and a terrorist responsible for the deaths of thousands of people?

Let me answer that question. That would be in the context of a desperate man who sees him life-long ambition to be president going down in flames, and will not hesitate to sink to any level to try and achieve that goal, even if it means watching any shred of decency and integrity he may have once had go down with it.

McCain and Palin, Clueless and Cluelesser

25 Thursday Sep 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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When I first heard of Senator McCain’s decision yesterday to suspend his campaign, and his request to postpone Friday night’s debate with Barack Obama, I found it a bit curious. Here we are, 40 days out from the election, with multiple presidential debates and the vice-presidential debate all compressed into such a short time span, and one of the candidates wants to return to Washington and be an integral part of a solution to the economic mess.

Even more curious is that this is the same presidential candidate who only a few days ago said that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Now he says if legislation is not passed quickly to deal with this crisis, the country faces another Great Depression. What a difference a few days makes.

Then I read a statement from McCain surrogate Lindsey Graham and I saw the Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric. Now it all makes sense.

Sen. Graham told CNN that the McCain campaign is proposing that the presidential debate be rescheduled for October 2nd. Just by coincidence, that happens to be the date selected for the vice-presidential debate. Rescheduling of the VP debate was not mentioned. I suspect that is because of this:

 

 

After watching that performance, I fully understand why the McCain campaign has been diligently shielding Gov. Palin from the press, and why they would like nothing better than to see the VP debate not rescheduled, but cancelled.

I particularly liked the question about some examples of Sen. McCain’s attempts to reform Wall Street during his 26 years in Washington. Governor Palin’s response of “I’ll try to find you some, and I’ll bring them to you”, was reminiscent of Senator McCain’s answer to how many homes he owned, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Talk about two peas in a pod, here they are, clueless and cluelesser.

Barack Obama’s Executive Experience

01 Monday Sep 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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The latest attempt by the McCain campaign to justify the pick of Sarah Palin is to point to her advantage in “executive experience” over Barack Obama, including this, posted on the McCain web site:

“She’s the Governor of Alaska and was the mayor of a small town, meaning she has more executive experience than Barack Obama and Joe Biden put together.”

If the McCain people want to talk about executive experience, let’s look at what Barack Obama’s actions as an executive have managed to accomplish in the last 18 months.

* He has put together, from scratch, a political organization of nearly 1,000 employees that has to-date raised approximately $300 million through a network of 1.8 million donors, a major portion of whom made contributions of $200 or less.

* He has defeated the most powerful political machine in the country, the Clintons, which began this campaign with more advantages than possibly any campaign has ever had.

* He put together a campaign staff that outsmarted and out-maneuvered the Clinton team at every turn, building a grass-roots organization, not only in Iowa, but in the states following Super Tuesday, which allowed him to build a delegate lead that Hillary was never able to overcome.

* His campaign has changed forever the way a major presidential campaign is financed. This, from Rolling Stone:

“The size and scale and sophistication of the Obama enterprise — it’s like a multinational corporation compared to the mom-and-pop nonprofits of previous Democratic campaigns,” says Simon Rosenberg, president of the progressive think tank NDN and a veteran of Bill Clinton’s 1992 run. “And it isn’t just bigger — it’s a better model, it’s more democratic, it taps into the power and passion of everyday people.”

Obama has built “an amazingly strong machine,” says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, president of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the Yale School of Management. “People expected a more ad hoc, impromptu, entrepreneurial feel to it. It has been more of a well-orchestrated symphony than the jazz combo we expected.”

Pretty impressive “executive experience” if you ask me. The way I see it, Barack Obama has more executive experience than John McCain and Sarah Palin put together.

Maher, Kaine, and McCain’s Roving Eyes

31 Sunday Aug 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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Bill Maher returned Friday night just in time for the McCain/Palin announcement and, to no one’s surprise, had quite a bit to say about it. See for yourself:

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia was also on, and gave an excellent analysis of McCain’s VP pick along with an overview of Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday night. I like the choice of Biden as a running mate for Obama, but Kaine would also have been a good choice and will be instrumental in Obama’s attempt to carry Virginia, which is now considered a battleground state.

Then there’s Senator McCain. Watch Johnny’s wandering eye as Sarah Palin speaks after being named as VP nominee. Also notice the Senator twiddling with his wedding ring.

I can only imagine the thoughts that are going through his head as he ogles Gov. Palin, ‘If only Cindy hadn’t made me sign that damn pre-nup.’

Obama’s Speech and McCain’s Reaction

29 Friday Aug 2008

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I’m sure most of you saw Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night and have drawn your own conclusions as to it’s content and it’s effectiveness. I’ll share my thoughts with you and then give the reaction of others and the response of the McCain camp, which was as predictable as hot August days in Texas.

In a nutshell, Obama was magnificent. He answered his critics who say he is all style and no substance by laying out specific objectives that his administration would pursue. He drew stark differences between himself and John McCain, correctly linking McCain with the failed policies of George W. Bush. And he went after McCain, not on personal or character issues, but rather on McCain’s record and what he would do as President. In horse racing that’s called a trifecta, three winners.

Here’s just one reaction to the speech. This is Alex Castellanos, a longtime Republican consultant and a protege of Lee Atwater when it comes to down-and-dirty political warfare. Hearing this should be a cause of concern in the McCain camp.

 

Then there was the response from the McCain campaign:

“Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm’s way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President.”

Here is MSNBC’s Chuck Todd’s assessment of that predictable reaction:

 

The Republicans definitely have a hard act to follow. If the tone of their campaign against Barack Obama so far is any indication, I expect it to be a 4-day slime and smear festival. The icing on the GOP cake will be the expected riveting acceptance speech by that great orator, Senator John McCain. This much I know, I would love to be the person who has the coffee and No-Doz concession in the arena that night.

Brain Dead Republicans Mock “Obama’s Temple”

29 Friday Aug 2008

Posted by in Election 2008, McCain, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized

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Proving that they are running out of reasons for which to attack Barack Obama, some on the far-right are now mocking the stage setting for tonight’s acceptance speech in Denver’s Mile High Stadium. They are calling the backdrop of Greek columns “the Temple of Obama”, the “heights of presumptuousness”, and “blind hubris.”

On his radio program yesterday, Rush Limbaugh said that since the temples in ancient Greece were built as homes for the gods, Obama has taken his Messiah status one step further and now believes himself to be God.

I hate to be the one to burst the GOP bubble, but I guess a little history lesson is in order. Today is the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was given in front of the structure pictured here, better known as the Lincoln Memorial. Note the columns.

 

 

 

Here is a photograph of Dr. King taken during a portion of that speech. Again, take notice of the columns in the background.

 

 

 

So you see my Republican friends, the stage is not set up to portray Obama as some sort of Deity, it has an historical context. Oh well, back to attacking Obama’s patriotism and smearing him by taking his remarks on Iran and Israel out of context.

I might, however, suggest an appropriate setting for John McCain’s acceptance speech. Maybe in front of a mock-up of a crashed fighter plane, or in light of his many references to his time in captivity, a re-creation of the Hanoi Hilton. He is a former POW, you know.