I’m calling it McCain, 53%-47% popular, 281-257 electoral.Posted by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates
A Republican attack ad invites viewers to "meet the real Ashwin Madia," but the still photos featured in the spot present a noticeably darker version of the 3rd District DFL congressional candidate.
Reached by phone in Washington Wednesday, NRCC spokesman Ken Spain replayed the ad on YouTube and told KARE, "We stand by the ad."
Sometimes, when a political campaign has run out of ideas and senses that the prize is slipping through its fingers, it rolls up a sleeve and plunges an arm, shoulder deep, right down to the bottom of the barrel. The problem for John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the Republican Party is that the bottom was scraped clean long before it dropped out.
E&P: Obama's lopsided margin, including most of the major papers that have decided so far, is in stark contrast to John Kerry barely edging George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004 by 213 to 205. Obama, with 222, has already topped Kerry's number with many more yet to be tallied.
In the first two weeks of October, Obama and the DNC spent $105 million compared to $25 million for McCain and the RNC. In some key television markets, there are seven Obama ads for every McCain ad. Ten days ago each side had about $100 million in the bank, but in the first two weeks of October, the Democrats have raised $37 million to the Republicans $15 million.
Not all the money is going to TV ads. Salaries of people on the ground are also a major expense. McCain was in the news yesterday on this score. His highest paid staffer is makeup artist Amy Strozzi who got $22,800 for 2 weeks' work and hair stylist Angela Lew didn't do badly at $10,000 for 2 weeks work, either.
"...the Democratic Party, it's out of touch with reality, it talks about the common man, but everytime you look, there's John Edwards getting a $400 haircut.Fox News on Palin:
-- Fox News: Your World with Neil Cavuto
"Television is a cosmetic business, always has been always will be to a certain extent and so is politics... if you're in the public eye, you've got to look good."WATCH IT
-- Fox News: Day Side
You have to go back to the Watergate era to see numbers quite so horrible for the GOP.
McCain's awful campaign is having awful consequences down the ballot. I spoke a little while ago to a senior Republican House member. "There is not a safe Republican seat in the country," he warned. "I don't mean that we're going to lose all of them. But we could lose any of them."
In the Senate, things look, if possible, even worse.-- David Frum, former GW Bush speech writer
"From their perspective, a continuation of Bush policies is best for recruiting," said Professor Nye, adding that Mr. McCain is far more likely to continue those policies.Al Qaeda has simply outsmarted the feeble narrow minded alarmist and arrogant foreign policy of the Bush Administration. Al Qaeda welcomed the war in Iraq as a way to drain America's military resources and economy while building their real base in Afghanistan. Due to this Bush Administration blunder, they have been successful.
Today, Somalia is the worlds greatest humanitarian disaster, worse even than Darfur or Congo. The crisis has complex roots, and Somali warlords bear primary blame. But Bush administration paranoia about Islamic radicals contributed to the disaster.
Somalia has been in chaos for many years, but in 2006 an umbrella movement called the Islamic Courts Union seemed close to uniting the country. The movement included both moderates and extremists, but it constituted the best hope for putting Somalia together again. Somalis were ecstatic at the prospect of having a functional government again.
Bush administration officials, however, were aghast at the rise of an Islamist movement that they feared would be uncooperative in the war on terror. So they gave Ethiopia, a longtime rival in the region, the green light to invade, and Somalias best hope for peace collapsed.
"A movement that looked as if it might end this long national nightmare was derailed, in part because of American and Ethiopian actions," said Ken Menkhaus, a Somalia expert at Davidson College. "As a result, Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism have surged, partly because Somalis blame Washington for the brutality of the Ethiopian occupiers."
"There's a level of anti-Americanism in Somalia today like nothing Ive seen over the last 20 years," Professor Menkhaus said. Somalis are furious with us for backing the Ethiopian intervention and occupation, provoking this huge humanitarian crisis.
"Yes! Someone called me a redneck woman once and you know what I said back? I said, 'Why thank you.’"
- Sarah Palin
"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."
You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not.
Fox News is on record saying:John McCain’s Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established — and even told reporters outright that the “B” carved into the victim’s cheek stood for “Barack,” according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.
In an official statement the McCain campaign says: "We're shaken up by this. It's sick and disgusting."
Most bloggers saw through this hoax from the beginning.
Backwards B? Not So Much
For one thing, the image could be flipped. For another thing, she could have taken a picture of herself in a mirror. For a third -- if she were on her back, her head held by the attacker's left arm below her chin, her head between his legs as he scratched -- she'd be upside down as oriented to him.
UPDATE II: Drudge Report pushed the story - said she was “attacked and mutilated”
Police tell KDKA that a campaign volunteer has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker. Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car. Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.Note to little Miss Piggy - if you're going to fake a hate crime, you've got to do better, dumbass. Her ass is now in jail.
It's Not Over Yet
The most accurate poll in the 2004 presidential election says McCain has cut Obama's lead to 1 point
... You don't punish the Bush administration's Supreme Court's failure to overturn the murderous Roe v. Wade by electing a president who voted to let infants die.
From the Brian Williams interview. Sarah Palin was asked about abortion clinic bombers, would they qualify as terrorists? First she sidestepped the question, went to Bill Ayres, then came this response to the question:
Brian Williams: Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition?
Sarah Palin: ... I don’t know if you’re gonna use the word "terrorist" there.
Dead Even
Associated Press poll: The presidential race is basically dead even, with McCain rising. Credit goes to Joe the Plumber.
Obama's lead in PA shrinks to 2Hey douche bag... Obama is up by double digits in PA - AND - Obama is also up in FL, OH, VA, NC, MO - ALL MUST-WIN McCain states. Check the links.
...I've said many times on this blog and in other forums that I didn't think Obama could win Pennsylvania.
RCP:I love it... Chris Matthews gave Bachmann just enough rope to hang herself. When these GOP bimbos open their mouths, their brains fall out. Just like Palin.
[Rep. Bachmann] earned widespread scorn for her remarks, made on MSNBC's "Hardball" last week. In the following four days, her Democratic opponent, former state Transportation Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg, had raised over $1 million...
RS:
In an interview with a local Colorado TV station, Palin said the vice president is "in charge of the United States Senate" and "can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes."
The confusion on display in Palin's interview this week suggests that she may still be wondering, as she was in July just what the VP does, anyway.
Palin also apparently did little to study up after fumbling a question about her prospective duties during this month's debate with Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden.
Article I of the US Constitution establishes the framework for the House and Senate and establishes the vice president's limited position therein. There is essentially no flexibility or ambiguity regarding the VP's position, and the office is mentioned only twice. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.
Maintenance workers reported about 7:45 a.m. finding a 75-pound bear cub dumped at the roundabout near the Catamount statute at the entrance to campus, said Tom Johnson, chief of university police.This is an example of the gun nut cowardly assholes that we're dealing with. It takes a big man to shoot a bear cub in the head.
“It looked like it had been shot in the head as best we can tell. A couple of Obama campaign signs had been stapled together and stuck over its head,” said Johnson.
Your memory of history is not very good oh delusional one.
On Election day 2004 Bush trailed Kerry by double digits.
Notice the ‘polls’, William? Recall, do you , the great ‘lead’ that both Gore and Kerry had over Bush? Greater than the ‘lead’ Baracky has right now over McCain, weren’t they?
Four years and 3 days ago, on Oct. 17, 2004, the Washington Post released results of a poll that showed John Kerry had a lead of 53 percent to 43 percent over George W. Bush in 13 "swing states" that would decide the outcome of the election.
This thing is not over.
Barack Obama greeted 100,000 supporters in St. Louis, Missouri—marking the largest crowd of his campaign.
Obama then skipped across the Show Me State and was greeted by a crowd of at least 75,000 in Kansas City.
Not to be outdone, McCain spent today hopping around Missouri. He started in the traditional Republican hotbed of St. Charles, Missouri, drawing dozens of supporters.
Then he moved on to Columbia, where he was greeted by around 15 people. That's right... 15 people. To be fair, he then went to a barbecue restaurant in Columbia with a brisk lunch crowd and probably doubled the original 15 supporters.
Finally, it was off to Belton, just south of Kansas City, where he drew the largest crowd of the day with an estimated 6,000 supporters.
Two weeks before the election—in three appearances in Republican strongholds—McCain drew fewer than 10,000 people [compared to Obama's 175,000 in two appearances]
In case you haven't heard, there's a guy running for president named Barack Hussein Osama Nobama. This Nobama was born outside America and secretly schooled in Islamic terrorism at a Wahhabi madrassa. He then moved to the United States to take up the radical '60s teachings of the Weather Underground's Bill Ayers, while also organizing for ACORN, a subprime-lending, voter fraud-committing collective of affirmative-action welfare queens. All this happened before he became an elitist celebrity advocate of socialism, infanticide, the sexual abuse of children and treason.
Suffice it to say, this caricature stretches even the limits of comic imagination.
Troubled by conservatives pushing the idea that Obama is a Muslim or of Muslim heritage, Colin Powell gave a passionate defense of Obama and Muslim Americans citing a Muslim American soldier that gave his life in Iraq.
“Well the correct answer, he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian, he’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is ‘what if he is?’ Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no, that’s not America.” - Colin Powell, 10/19/08
POWELL FOR OBAMA: IT'S NOT ABOUT RACE
(CNN) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama, citing the Democrat's "ability to inspire" and the "inclusive nature of his campaign."
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he is voting for Barack Obama.
"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.
Submitted for your review: 1) the wingnut Ohio Christian hate contingent, 2) a sign posted in south central Missouri on the west side of U.S. 63, and 3) an illustration in a Southern California Republican newsletter.
"Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States."
CNN reports: "Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin plans to appear on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, multiple sources told CNN Thursday."The problem with Sarah is that she doesn't know anything (except maybe how to shoot an animal and memorize RNC talking points). The problem for Sarah is that to run a country, you have to know stuff. She doesn't ... that is what they're hiding, that is why she hasn't held a press conference or appeared on any Sunday talk shows. If you've noticed, the minute she opened her mouth for the 2 interviews (outside of Fox 'wingnut land' News) on ABC and CBS, her approval began to plunge.
During my recent wilderness trip, I passed by Western Carolina University in beautiful Cullowhee, NC and saw this sign on the pedestrian bridge over highway 108.The Alaska Independence Party, inconveniently for Palin, the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (“Keep up the good work,” Palin told AIP members. “And God bless you.”)
AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. “She’s Alaskan to the bone … she sounds just like Joe Vogler.”
So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin’ around with?
AIP party founder Joe Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, “When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.”
Vogler wasn’t just a blowhard either. He put his secessionist ideas into action, working to build AIP membership to 20,000 — an impressive figure by Alaska standards — and to elect party member Walter Hickel as governor in 1990.
Vogler’s greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States “tyranny” before the entire world and to demand Alaska’s freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.
Remember McCain demonizing Obama for wanting to talk with our enemies in the debate?McCain thinks the Iraq surge should be a model for the strategy in Afghanistan, according to McCain, “the same strategy that he [Obama] condemned in Iraq.” Wrong - according to both commanders - Petraeus and McKiernan.
Petraeus pointed to efforts by Hamid Karzai’s government to negotiate a deal with the Taliban that would potentially bring some Taliban members back to power, saying that if they are “willing to reconcile,” it would be “a positive step.”In saying that, Petraeus implicitly allied with U.S. Army Gen. David McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Last week, McKiernan rejected the idea of replicating the blend of counterinsurgency strategy employed in Iraq. “The word that I don’t use in Afghanistan is the word ’surge,’” McKiernan said, opting against recruiting Pashtun tribal fighters to supplement Afghan security forces against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. “There are countless other differences between Iraq and Afghanistan,” he added.
McCain, however, has argued that the Afghanistan war is ripe for a direct replication of Petraeus’ Iraq strategy of population-centric counterinsurgency. “Sen. Obama calls for more troops,” McCain said in the Sept. 26 debate, “but what he doesn’t understand, it’s got to be a new strategy, the same strategy that he condemned in Iraq. It’s going to have to be employed in Afghanistan.”
Gallup: Signifying a general stability in the race, Obama has maintained a share of the vote between 48% and 52% over the last two weeks, while McCain's share during that same time period has been between 41% and 45%.
A credible threat to our campus has been made. As a result, as of noon today, classes will be cancelled for the remainder of the week. Campus Police, in cooperation with local and state law enforcement officials, are actively investigating the situation, which involves a series of threatening emails and suspicious fires.
During this time, campus security will be increased. University offices will maintain normal business hours and other campus events will go on as scheduled. Following our regularly scheduled fall break, classes will resume on Wednesday, October 15. Employees and students are encouraged to report any unusual or suspicious activity to Campus Police. More information will be provided on the MTSU home page as details become available.
Here is an email going around from a Marine officer who is also a Christian, thought provoking…
————————————–
What if…
What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said ‘I do’ to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?
What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5?(123,000 seniors and others were swindled out of their life savings)
What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what Racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another, when there is a color difference. In 2008 some people cannot vote for a man simply because he is black.
Blind Morality lets us “Christian People” turn a blind eye to the morality, or lack there of - of a confirmed hot-head, adulturer, erratic lier, distorter of the truth and a thief. John McCain suffered greatly as a POW and characterizes himself as a hero. After 24 years in the Marine Corps I know for a fact that “real hero’s” don’t toot their own horn. Why is he hated by just about everyone who is involved in the POW/MIA organization? Its a surreal comedy that ”good Christian” Americans are voting for John McCain and touting him as their “moral choice” for the leadership of the free world.
With America facing historic debt, 2 wars, 4000+ dead, countless thousands with permanent physical and mental scars, stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, the middle class in crisis, lets not even mention the poor, etc. Just imagine, if the middle class can not afford gas and food; WHAT ABOUT THE POOR?
Consider…
Educational Background:
Obama:
Columbia University with a Specialization in
International Relations
Harvard Law - Magna Cum Laude - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Biden:
B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
vs.
McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
You are The Boss… Make a decision for America… Which team would you hire?
All of us fall short of grace. None of us are perfect. None of us are saying that we are going to be the steady hand on the tiller as we attempt to become the President of the United States of America.
Open your eyes…
Please Vote. Peace. God Bless You and our Troops. Semper Fi. - Larry
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The campaign is getting dirty, distasteful and desperate. I think I’ll be taking a break from blogging for a while. As Americans we deserve better than the irrelevant trash the Republicans are dishing out in their 100% negative campaign. It’s disgusting and we should ignore it. We aren’t stupid enough to buy the lies and fear this time.
| Battleground States | Obama/ | McCain | Spread |
| Colorado | 49.3 | 45.3 | Obama +4.0 |
| Ohio | 48.9 | 44.9 | Obama +4.0 |
| Florida | 48.3 | 45.3 | Obama +3.0 |
| Nevada | 49.6 | 46.6 | Obama +3.0 |
| Missouri | 47.8 | 47.5 | Obama +0.3 |
| Virginia | 49.9 | 45.1 | Obama +4.8 |
"These unregulated swaps have been at the heart of the subprime meltdown. I happen to think Gramm did not know what he was doing. I don't think a member in Congress had read the 262-page bill or had thought of the cataclysm it would cause."
--Michael Greenberger, former Director of CTFC division of trading & markets
But that’s exactly what Sarah Palin did just 3 years ago - stood in front of her congregation was 'prayed upon' while a Kenyan witch hunter 'laid hands upon her' ON VIDEO. AND she credits her success to this experience. Not to mention the fact that the preacher had just finished a sermon calling for the religious take over of government, politics and education... and for God to boost the finances of candidate Palin.…all the churches that Sarah Palin has attended, and she’s been to almost as many churches as she has colleges, have one thing in common: a belief that the Bible is literally true. She’s not “Country First”, she’s “Bible First”. And not just the New Testament. That’s the happy half of the book: the baby in the manger, Jesus doing magic tricks, long romantic walks on the water that turn into fishing trips with the guys and a generally positive message. Jesus, after all, preached love and forgiveness, not shooting wolves from an airplane.
That’s what I have to tell you guys… If there was a video of Barack Obama standing in front of his congregation being healed by a black witch doctor, this election would be over.
But there is that video of Sarah Palin.
Can you imagine what the right wing would do with such a video of Obama?
Palin said she thinks Jesus will return in her lifetime. In the same service where she credits pastor Muthee with her success, her pastor says that Alaska will “serve as a refuge for Americans during the last days.” Is that the kind of person you want with their finger on a nuclear trigger?
BTW…
“The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Barack Obama attracting 52% of the vote while John McCain earns 44%. This is the highest level of support ever recorded for Obama and is his largest lead of the year. It also continues a remarkable twenty-five days in a row where the Democrat’s support has never declined by even a single point.”
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska judge on Thursday refused to block a state investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power when she fired her public safety commissioner this summer.
Judge Peter Michalski threw out the lawsuit filed by five Republican state legislators who said the investigation had been tainted by partisan politics and was being manipulated to damage Palin shortly before the Nov. 4 presidential election.
Look at the Bush record. Rules proposed by the Bush administration would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act, no longer requiring federal agencies to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether a project would harm an endangered species.
President Bush made wildlife conservation an early and a high priority of his administration. - Dick Cheney, Reno, NV
However, I did see Bill O'Reilly once say something correct.
Frank explains:
When the Democrats obtained the majority in the 2006 election, and I became chair of the committee, I made a very strong reform bill one of our highest priorities and worked closely with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to break the logjam that hindered the bill in the past. As a result, the Financial Services Committee, which organized under the Democrats on Jan. 31, 2007, passed the bill restructuring the regulation of Fannie and Freddie, specifically including all the increased powers that the Bush administration requested on March 28, 2007. The full House followed, by a vote of 313 to 104 in early May. The House passed these important reforms in May 2007, only four months after we became the majority. It is true that the bill was held up for over a year by inaction in the Senate, but that is not surprising given the difficulty the Senate has moving controversial legislation on any subject.
Additionally, when we were considering the stimulus package in early 2008, I proposed to Mr. Paulson that in addition to raising the jumbo loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we include the GSE reform that the House had passed. He did not agree, fearing that it might slow things down.
In fact, my reform efforts had begun when we were still in the minority. In 2005, I joined Michael Oxley, then chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, in supporting legislation to increase the regulation of Fannie and Freddie that passed the House by a vote of 330 to 90. When former Congressman Richard Baker proposed to examine the compensation structure of Fannie and Freddie's top executives, and some members of Congress tried to block him, I explicitly spoke out in support of his right to do that and our right, as a Congress, to examine the GSE's compensation practices.
