The Truth is Out

I have been outraged over the blatant bigotry and mob mentality coming from the McCain campaign and for good reason. It has nothing to do with the 2008 election; it has everything to do with being behind in the polls, losing ground, and not having a plan or message that resonates with Americans. It also has to do with the Republican Party overall because has become apparent that they are going to lose a lot of seats in both Houses and it scares them, so they are spewing out McCarthyist tactics. In short, they are desperate.

McCain’s campaign is no longer about issues. He and his supporters want to bring up anything and everything to derail Obama, and nothing is sticking, so they just keep returning to their old bag of tricks.

In the past two weeks, we’ve seen Minnesota Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann make one of the most audacious statements ever, suggesting that Obama holds anti-American views, that other members of Congress have the same views, and that the media should launch a widespread investigation to ferret them out.

No, seriously, she said that on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

I saw that interview and it was horrific. This Republican is getting everything she deserves, hardball campaigning from the Democratic Party in Minnesota. McCarthyism was a horrible period in our recent past and it needs to stay there. It is a dangerous mentality that could have horrible implications for average Americans, like you and I. We do not have to tow the nationalistic patriotism that is peddled by Republicans this is a free country for everyone, not just them.

Roland Martin’s commentary went to include:

This has totally gotten out of hand, but instead of trying to castigate Obama and tar and feather him, the Republicans should look inward and look at how their actions have seriously harmed this nation.

The Republicans ran Congress for six years. The Republicans have held the White House for the last eight years. The Republicans have advanced the deregulation agenda that played a major role in creating the financial mess we are currently in.

The Republicans have led the foreign policy we have in place that has destroyed the moral authority we once held. Their president is one of the most unpopular in history, so bad that he and Vice President Dick Cheney can’t even come out of the White House to campaign on behalf of McCain because they are so reviled by Americans.

Can someone please remind these folks of this?

Every campaign says they want the election to be about the issues, but when McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis made it clear that they want it to be about character and not issues, well, we should have realized we would get to this point.

As I have blogged about in the past the day the McCain campaign took a follow the leader strategy, first Hillary’s, which was about experience, but had to abandon when John McCain put Sarah Palin on the ticket. Then McCain took the next follow the leader strategy when he stole Obama’s message of change. John McCain stole two follow the leader strategies which are known not to work: lesson number one in business school. John McCain sealed the deal of a losing candidate when he took the low road and adopted the final strategy of a loser when he took the personal attack strategy. Only someone behind takes that approach and this election year Americans, independents especially do not want to hear. We want to hear about the issues, but McCain cannot win on the issues either.

Early Voter Turn Out

Officials in early voting states are reporting record turnout with Election Day still two weeks away.

McDonald said early voting is often a good prediction of the level of turnout on Election Day, and heavy early voting indicates the turnout this year will exceed the 60 percent turnout in the 2004 election.

“We have a very good chance of beating the 64 percent turnout in the 1960 election,” McDonald said. “We really could be looking at a historic election in modern American history.”

McDonald pointed to the record number of early votes already cast in Georgia as an example of the high interest in the race.

Voters in Cobb County stood outdoors in line for two hours to cast ballots Tuesday. Lines for early balloting were long all over metro-Atlanta Tuesday as the volume of voters in the upcoming presidential election continued to rise. On Monday alone, 66,159 people voted early in Georgia. That’s more than double last Monday’s figure. About 13 percent of registered voters — or 757,666 people — have cast ballots in Georgia so far.

If that was not bad enough for Republicans this year in Georgia the DeKalb County Republican Party chairman, a long-time John McCain backer, said this week that the Republican’s campaign has left Georgia to chance.

Two weeks out and here’s the state of the race in Georgia: McCain enjoys a lead ranging from a high of 6 percentage points to a low of 2, according to the past week’s worth of polls. Both campaigns are focused on the ground game, as early voting continues until next Friday. Turnout so far has been heavy, with a disproportionate number of votes from African-Americans, who tend to vote Democrat. One poll showed Obama with a double-digit lead among early voters.

The old adage about voting is that light voter turn outs always favors conservatives, in the United States that means the Republicans. The adage goes on that high voter turn outs always favors liberals, in the United States that means the Democrats. So far it is estimated that 2.2 million people have already voted and there are reports where lines for early voters has been as long as 2.5 hours.

So far, it looks like 2008 will be a banner election season for Democrats and a shaming for Republicans.

Americans Are Waking Up

A growing number of Americans believe John McCain has attacked Barack Obama unfairly, a negative perception of the Arizona senator that could cost him at the polls on Election Day.

According to a new survey from CNN and the Opinion Research Corp., nearly six in 10 Americans believe McCain has unfairly gone negative in his bid for the White House.

It is long overdue that Americans reject the vile tactics of the McCain campaign. It is sickening and disgusting the amount of visceral anger, distortions, and vulgarities that are coming from John McCain, Sarah Palin, the McCain campaign, and many of their followers. These people are so afraid of losing the White House and control of both Houses that they know no bounds in spitting out hate filled rhetoric. Unlike in previous elections, Americans are not falling for negative campaigning and thankfully so.

It is utterly contemptible to hear “Kill him!” and “Terrorist!” getting shouted at their campaign rallies only because the candidates themselves are inciting their followers. Then, of course, there are the robocalls, and the actions of their volunteer workers who are being encouraged to equate Obama with terrorism and other hateful things that are utterly contemptible. Then as if that were not enough, Sarah Palin and John McCain are referring to Obama as a socialist that is prompting their followers to not only call Obama a socialist, but a Marxist as well without even knowing what they mean, some are even hanging banners at McCain and Palin rallies with those words and Obama’s name on them.

Thankfully Americans are rejecting this as it beyond unacceptable to hear this coming from people who want to be the President and Vice President of the United States. This is a free country, not 1930’s Nazi Germany, or the Jim Crow south, or the McCarthyist 50’s. Both McCain and Palin deserve to lose the race to the White House, they deserve to lose it by a landslide.

Come November fourth McCain, Palin, and the Republican Party are going to learn firsthand the power of an awakened electorate as they lose the race with a landslide victory for Obama and Biden.

About commenting, no comments with foul language, personal attacks, or racism will not get posted.

McCain’s Alter Ego

Time for a Generational Change

Colin Powell, as I write, is endorsing Barack Obama for president. In his statement he says that it is time for a generational change. I could not agree more. Powell went on to say:

“He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well,” Powell said.

Powell went on to say about McCain and Powell:

“Powell said he questioned Sen. John McCain’s judgment in picking Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate because he doesn’t think she is ready to be president.

He also said he was disappointed with some of McCain’s campaign tactics, such as bringing up Obama’s ties to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.”

Powell also included in his statement the he does not like all of the negative campaigning coming from the McCain campaign, which turned up in the last presidential debate as well. Overall, in this election cycle, people do not like the negative campaigning; people this time around want to hear about the issues, not smears.

Change is coming and it is coming from all places, even from Republicans like Colin Powell who has a high approval rating with Americans.

Running Out of Time

In McCain’s radio address today he made the following comments:

“You see, [Obama] believes in redistributing wealth, not in policies that help us all make more of it. Joe, in his plainspoken way, said this sounded a lot like socialism,” McCain said Saturday.

McCain also said in his radio address, “At least in Europe, the socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are up front about their objectives. They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candor from Sen. Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give checks to others is not a tax cut; it’s just another government giveaway.”

Pressed on whether he considered Obama a socialist, McCain shrugged and said, “I don’t know.”

Obama responded:

“John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people ‘welfare,’ ” Obama told a massive crowd under the famous St. Louis arch. “The only ‘welfare’ in this campaign is John McCain’s plan to give another $200 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest corporations in America.” Watch large crowds rally for Obama »

“George Bush and John McCain are out of ideas, they are out of touch, and if you stand with me, in 17 days they’ll be out of time,” Obama added to wild applause.

I am inclined to agree that with a campaign like McCain’s that is out of ideas, behind in the polls, not just CNN’s, and running out of time they are going to make all kinds of wild accusations, because that is all they have left.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are now following the basic tenets of McCarthyism given they do not have a real argument as to why anyone should vote for them.

McCarthyism according to Webster’s Dictionary:

: a mid-20th century political attitude characterized chiefly by opposition to elements held to be subversive and by the use of tactics involving personal attacks on individuals by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges ; broadly : defamation of character or reputation through McCarthyite tactics.

November Election

CNN

Europe Mocks Palin

At first Europe liked Palin. She was received warmly, like she was in the United States. Columnists wrote things like:

“Columnists were approving that here, for once, was a politician in the higher reaches who probably actually knew the price of a loaf and a pint of milk. Women writers in particular responded warmly to her joke about the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom –“Lipstick.””

But as time went by and the honeymoon ended and glitz wore off Europe began to see Palin in a different light.

“We were, the Irish Times warned, “just a heartbeat away from the biggest half-baked Alaskan nightmare.” Britain’s Financial Times said his selection of vice president raised serious questions about John McCain’s judgment and added: “The Palin appointment is yet more proof of the way that abortion still dominates American politics.””

It is not that any presidential or vice presidential candidate needs the approval of Europe to run for the two highest positions in the United States, but it does help from the perspective that Europe is our biggest ally along with our largest trading partner. Many deals both economically and politically are brokered between the United States and Europe, so having a candidate that is at least liked by Europeans is a big plus in this global world. However, Palin exposed herself to both the United States and Europe as backward and unfit for the position of vice president.

Palin was a risky choice for McCain to make as his running mate, even though she may have appealed to the right wing of the Republican base, that is the only place she has had any appeal.

CNN

End in Sight?

The long presidential campaign is nearing its end, which will end with one of the two  candidates either in the Oval Office and the other heading back to the US Senate. At this moment in time it appears as though the person heading back to the senate is going to be John McCain, with Barack Obama getting the coveted seat in the Oval Office. However, I would like to point out that October is not over and there are 19 days left to the general election. There is still time for an October Surprise, what it could be is anyone’s guess.

“But with less than three weeks to go, CNN’s latest poll of polls shows McCain trailing Obama by 8 points nationwide — a mid-October deficit that only one presidential hopeful has overcome to win the White House in the last 50 years.”

There have been very few to overcome such a deficit this close to an election. John McCain is trailing significantly in the national polls and the Electoral College. McCain is even fighting to hold on to traditional red states and is behind in others. Last night’s debate may have been McCain’s last stand. It will be interesting to see what happens in the weeks ahead as the election reaches is dramatic conclusion, but for right now it looks as though in a few short weeks on the morning of November fifth the world will be referring to Barack Obama as president elect.

The Polls

Keith Olbermann Bitch Slaps McCain

Keith Olbermann: McCain suspend your campaign