Gimmicks Don't Work

Come to think of it....Tina Fey would have been a better choice

We stand less than two weeks away from the election and the latest poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal shows Obama opening up a 10-point lead over McCain. What has stalled McCain's traction in the polls? What has been the top reason his campaign has been stymied? What is the main concern voters have about a potential McCain presidency?

• continuing the disastrous Bush economic policies to benefit the upper 1%?
• not doing enough to protect American jobs?
• slashing Medicare and taxing health care benefits (for the first time ever)?
• providing tax breaks to Big Oil, Big Pharma, etc?
• not simply staying in, but escalating the siege in Iraq?
• continuing the obliviousness of the Bush administration towards the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Al Queda network in Pakistan?

Well, all these are notable factors....but the main reason voters are peeling away from McCain is - his own gambit in selecting a "mavericky", yet thoroughly unqualified vice-presidential candidate:

Now, Palin’s qualifications to be president rank as voters’ top concern about McCain’s candidacy - ahead of continuing President Bush’s policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too high of a troop presence in Iraq.

Fifty-five percent of respondents say she’s not qualified to serve as president if the need arises, up five points from the previous poll. In addition, for the first time, more voters have a negative opinion of her than a positive one. In the survey, 47 percent view her negatively, versus 38 percent who see her in a positive light.

That, to me, is a stunning development. The one decision McCain thought would transform his campaign has turned out to be a bigger liability to him than George W. Bush.

A couple thousand words

I think Senator McCain just saw CNN's instant polling that Independents went for Obama 57-31.

Why Intellectual Dishonesty Is Never A Good Idea

Now that we're in the home stretch of this campaign season (56 days and counting), you are undoubtedly being inundated by e-mails, as have I, tearing down one candidate or the other. In my experience, the majority of these mass e-mails are dubiously sourced, at best, or, at worst, a compendium of outright lies designed to smear the candidate and scare voters off from supporting him. The recipients of these e-mails would do well to find out the facts on their own and debunk these false missives wherever possible. It is one thing to forward them to friends and family; it is quite another to post them to one's blog as if they were the author's work, without attribution or explanation.

Such was the case with a recent post on Automatic Rebalancing. You all will remember AR from this charming post in April of this year, which depicted a group of black people running away from Obama after he pledged "to make sure everyone who can work will have a job." How witty...if you're at the local Christian Identity meeting.

Such was the case on Monday when AR posted a lengthy comparison of the tax policies of Obama and McCain. The purpose of the exercise, given the partisan slant of the blog, was to highlight how disastrous Obama's policies would be for the average taxpayer and how beneficent McCain's policies would be. The author introduced this post by stating his bonafides as a "professional in the financial services industry" and claiming that the "following information has been researched and verified..." Seems legit, no? The post goes on to list comparisons in different tax categories (capital gains, dividends, income tax, etc) with comments by the author supporting the "facts" as presented.

Well, I smelled a rat. So, off to teh Yahoo intertubes search engine I ran and, lo and behold, found that most of the content of the post came directly from a rancid piece of anti-Obama astroturf making its way through e-mail inboxes across the land. Both of the popular online urban legend debunking sites, Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, called the information contained in this sleaze false and definitely misleading.

Knowing that AR has the cowardly policy of reviewing comments for moderation (or editing) before they're posted, I sent the following comment:

You're such an "expert" that you cut and pasted a false spam e-mail that's already been debunked by snopes.com? (http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/taxes.asp)

Just of kicks, let's take the income tax claim of this nonsense...as snopes noted, Obama does not favor extending the tax cuts for households with incomes of $250,000 or more per year. None of the brackets you listed apply to that level, so their inclusion is not only irrelevant, it's a flat out lie about Obama's tax policy. In fact, the taxpayers in the brackets you listed would see a greater reduction under Obama's plan than they would under McCain's "let's make the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent"plan.

So much for the information having been "researched and verified". It's full of shit!

I would hope that you don't reproduce this same shoddy, lazy effort for your clients.

P.S. You can either publish this comment as is or it's going up verbatim on my blog

Well, I didn't have to worry about making good on my threat, as AR published a fierce rebuttal to my comment yesterday. Under the heading "Ah, self-righteous indignation...Wonderfully droll, isn't it?"

Well, I do tend to get self-righteous when I'm actually right.

In his defense, AR claims that he omitted the claims he thought were "absurd" and kept the ones he thought were "worthy of query". Well, thank goodness for that. Instead of cut-and-pasting all of the bullshit, AR just gave us a little taste.

The main problem with AR's original post is that it doesn't provide any links to any of Obama's actual proposals, nor does it cite any sources for the claims it makes (and AR expounds upon). AR claims he used other sources (a neo-conservative rag out of NYC and Dick Morris, for Christ's sake), but strangely does not cite them directly.

The post is predicated on a bushel of wild, exaggerated assumptions on Obama's policies...it invents whole claims out of thin air when they are not supported by the facts in evidence (i.e. Obama's own website). Any blather following cannot be taken seriously because the original assertion is either misleading or blatantly false.

Notwithstanding AR's mention of conservative nutjob media to support his case, he states the Tax Policy Center (a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute) "didn't have all the hard facts of either plan and had to make assumptions on key elements"....well, no shit, numbnuts. The difference is that the Tax Policy Center discloses this right up front and doesn't pass off wild speculation as fact, as you did.

AR is correct in one area....I am certainly no expert in economic issues. I didn't get my MBA by dazzling professors with my views on relevant economic theory or my vast knowledge of our current tax codes. I can use a fucking search engine, though, and when I spot bullshit, I call it bullshit.

FactCheck.org does a much better job than I possibly could in debunking this nonsense...here's the link again if you want to go through the gory details. I doubt one could call FactCheck.org an illegitmate source, being that it's funded by the Annenberg Foundation, which was founded by the noted leftist commie pinko Walter Annenberg.

Pay special attention to the last line of FactCheck's expose:

The short answer to our reader’s question is, no, this message isn’t real. It’s a pack of lies.

"You Said 'Walter Reed', Right? Well I Got Your 'Walter Reed'!"

"My friends, when I'm in house #5, which you can see behind me, I often think about putting country first..."

Just a quick note before I begin because this is too funny....some idiot at the RNC was charged with the responsibility of putting a picture up of Walter Reed Army Medical Center behind McCain during his speech...because, as you know, no Republican address is complete without draping themselves in the flag, putting on 9/11 footage as background scenery and using our troops as political props. Because, we all know, the military is Republican - well, except for those soldiers on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world that are giving to Obama by a 6-1 margin over McCain.

It turns out Captain Video went a'Googling and came up with.....a picture of Walter Reed Middle School. In North Hollywood, CA. Not even remotely related to an Army Medical Center or a place of convalescence for wounded troops.

This is incomptence we can believe in, my friends.

More to come on McCain's speech and the campaign ahead.

Meet the Focker

(St. Paul) - Senator John McCain greets the kid who knocked up his running mate's daughter. No, not awkward in the slightest.

The video of "When John Met Levi" is here.

"This is one doodle that can't be undid, homeskillet..."

I, for one, am thankful that the same crackerjack personnel McCain put on VP vetting duty may one day be in control of our domestic emergency response...or our homeland security defense against terrorism....or my Social Security.

Greetings and salutations! Hope your Labor Day weekend was as restful and enjoyable as mine! Now that Gabs O'Steel has so daintily let the frickin cat out of the bag, I might as well proclaim it for realz on my own square of greater Blogistan - I got a girlfriend! And her milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, if you get my drift. If you do, please let me know because I never knew what the fuck that song was about anyway...what is the "milkshake" double entendre referring to? These kids and their dirty songs nowadays....

Anyway, me and my gal had a wonderful holiday weekend filled with cookouts, hanging with friends, waiting an hour and a half at the Peace Bridge on Saturday to return to my beloved homeland, inviting my brother to hang with us at Tabu on Main St. for "Madonna Impersonator" night and watching him act non-plussed while being hit on by a 330-lb drag queen, drinking, fighting and more drinking. Oh, not to worry...we're were just quibbling over minor things, like how often I should clean my bathroom (you can guess what my answer is) and is it polite to point at psychopathic ex-convicts in Jim's Steak-Out at 12:30 am.

All kidding aside, the gf is wonderful, the Humanist is very happy and all is well in the world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, we're back to the grind on the campaign trail and....lookee here! The VP pick on the Republican side is turning out to be a train wreck to rival the Ufa rail disaster:

First, there was the revelation over the weekend that Palin's 17-year old daughter is preggers:

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, according to aides of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, the aides said.

The Palins, in a statement released by the McCain campaign, said Bristol "came to us with news that we as parents knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned" and that their daughter "has our unconditional love and support."

Personally, I agree with Obama that Bristol's pregnancy is a private matter for the Palin family and is no one else's business. It was true when Obama's mother had him at 18 and it's defintely applicable for young Bristol, who isn't running for anything.

What is our business, however, is Bristol's mother and the flaming spires of hypocrisy jetting from her yap. Most prominent is that Sarah Palin is building a bridge to the 19th century when it comes to reproductive rights and access to education for teenagers like her own:

Democrats noted, before and after today's announcement, that Palin took a hard line on a question in 2006 from the conservative Eagle Forum Alaska:

Q: Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

SP: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.

Palin also opposes abortion in cases like her daughter's, and in harder cases.

Palin would prefer that her own daughter, as well as thousands of teenagers in the same position, not have a choice or means to deal with their pregnancy at all. And Gawd help you if you're a teen girl who happens to become pregnant due to rape or incest:

"I am pro-life. With the exception of a doctor’s determination that the mother’s life would end if the pregnancy continued. I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent’s life," (emphasis mine)

Hear that, gals? You feelin that, parents of at-risk teens? Daddy's little angel got date-raped or Uncle Ernie got a little too affectionate during his last visit? Mama Palin says tough shit, missy....that's the Lord's little miracle in your belly and your uterus is now the property of Jeebus. I'm glad that Bristol has the means to support a newborn, being the daughter of the state governor and all, and that she's doesn't have to face the spectre of dropping out of school to become a single mother and all the happy, fun joy-joy that ensues. Cheers to her. Yay, responsibility!

Next, Gov. Palin lawyered up as Troopergate starts heating up:

Some allege the governor's staff pushed to get the governor's former brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, fired, and that Palin fired Commissioner Monegan because he wouldn't terminate Wooten.

Those allegations led to an investigation by the Legislature.

And, most recently, the governor hired a private attorney to represent her.

So the GOP ticket will be campaigning the next two months with the cloud of this state investigation hanging over their heads, with the findings scheduled to come out just before November 4th. No doubt, a brilliant piece of electoral strategy that will clearly work out very well for McCain. (/snark)

Then, late yesterday, word came out that Gov. Palin, a heartbeat away (potentially) from the presidency, belonged to a fringe Alaskan party that advocates secession from the United States:

After refraining from commenting on the charge for a day, the McCain campaign on Tuesday asserted that Palin was never a member of the AIP.

But Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

"We are a state's rights party," says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has "a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law."

It's worth noting that the official slogan of the McCain-Palin ticket is "America First"....while the AIP's official slogan is "Alaska First". Well, who's on first, Sarah?

And, finally, we learned this morning that Gov. Radioactive likes herself some good ol' fashioned book-burning:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." The librarian, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire her for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Ah, this must be the "executive experience" the Republicans are crowing about with regard to the Palin selection. A demand for blind loyalty to the executive office-holder, firing those who are perceived as non-supporters or politically independent and blatant abuse of power. Doesn't sound like anything we've encountered in the last 8 years, nope....Change we can believe in!

And, oh yeah....the running mate of the so-called "maverick" (who detests earmarks) loves her some of that filthy earmark lucre. And was director of a 527 group supporting now-disgraced-and-indicted Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

As is quite apparent to anyone who isn't a Republican lemming or is above the age of 10, the choice of Palin as VP was among the most appalling, ill-considered political decisions of any presidential campaign. Palin, herself, is a political disaster area, on par with Harriet Miers as the worst selections for federal office in recent memory. But the real story is John McCain's utter disdain for his supporters and female voters in general and his continuing pattern of recklessness in his decision-making. Does anyone still believe that McCain gave any serious thought to Palin in terms of her capabilities in taking office, let alone her qualifications for the ticket? He himself admitted he'd only met her twice before naming her as a running mate and calling her his "soulmate".

This was McCain's first real test of decision-making under pressure as President and it is a total and resounding failure. The corner he's painted himself into now is threatening to submarine his campaign before we even get to the first debate. Keep this radioactive person on the ticket and continue the slow drip, drip, drip of embarrassing revelations that are coming out daily? Or, dump her from the ticket and reveal your campaign operation to be the Keystone Kops Komedy it is and piss off all the fundamentalists who so loved having an anti-choice, pro-rape & incest, pro-Creationism, anti-science & logic nutjob on the national ticket? I don't envy his choice but I'm not exactly broken up about it, either.

UPDATE: Oops, forgot a knee-slapper from the 2006 candidate questionnaire that Palin completed:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

As we all know, the phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance by an act of Congress in 1954. Not to mention the Pledge itself wasn't written until 1892 and wasn't officially recognized as the official national pledge until 1942.

FURTHER UPDATE: Lest we think John McMansions was going to stay out of the fray:

Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits.

SON OF FURTHER UPDATE: drip, drip, drip


oh my

Eight Is Enough

Last night's address by Barack Obama left me with a mix of elation, inspiration and a strange sense of relief.

Elated that his speech was a full-throated, unapologetic affirmation of progressive principles, not some jelly-spined "centrist" bullshit that's doomed Democratic candidates not named Bill Clinton for the last two decades. Obama took on the social hot-button issues of the day - abortion, guns, gay marriage - and explained to the country that he stands on the right side of history. He didn't prattle on about "post-partisanship" and how he'll make nice with Republicans. He needed to draw a sharp distinction between his Democratic party and the party that's brought us the Bush-Cheney trainwreck for the last eight years and he did a damn good job of it.

Elated that Obama struck the right balance between laying out the specific plans of an Obama adminstration and portending the utter disaster of a McCain administration - four more years after the previous eight disastrous ones. Nominee addresses to the convention are usually more flowery and don't take on the opposing party's nominee too directly, but this isn't just any election. Obama needed to make the case to the country that we cannot afford a McCain presidency because it would be Bush III and he made it quite convincingly.

Insipred by Obama's own story and his eloquence in weaving his story into the American story that's been so much a part of this convention. I'm sure he's told his story a thousand times, and I wouldn't blame him if his eyes glazed over at some point. But, last night, his retelling had a special meaning and I think it has a lot to do with the negative attacks and e-mail smears he's had to endure during this campaign. The right-wing's attempts to alternately portray him as either an America-hating Muslim fanatic from an Indonesian madrassa or an empty-headed "celebrity" who offers nothing more than a good speech and some hoops skills must look like the ridiculous, pathetic schemes that they were. Experience? Obama's got a lifetime of it.

Inspired that Obama's story is my story, as it is the story for millions across this country. I am a child of immigrants, a first-generation American of color who is proud of all the fibers of his heritage. Never in my dreams could imagine that in my adult life, I would be able to cast a vote for a candidate who not only shares my values and ideas about the nation and world, but looks like me as well. Someone said to me last night after Obama's address that my vote didn't matter. In a more cynical time, I would be inclined to agree with that. But there will be no more meaningful vote I will cast in my lifetime than when I pull the lever for Obama on November 4.

I am equally relieved....relieved that this audacious gamble paid off so handsomely. The spectacle of 84,000 people packed into a football stadium to hear a convention address by a nominee was overwhelming and it made for great television. America saw a party united, a party comprised of people from all different backgrounds and cultures, sexes, creeds and orientations....a party energized and inspired by their candidate. I don't know if it played as well among the multitudes in the stadium, but Obama's message and his appeal came through loud and clear over the TV. America saw a man who not only inspires millions in the U.S., but around the world. If this is to be the face of America for the next four (or eight) years, we will be well-served.

As far as political speeches go, I thought it was an well-written address, neatly covering a wide range of topics and hitting a number of varied objectives without being a boring, monotonous recitation of policy planks. Some of the better lines:

"Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change."

"Eight is enough!"

"It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it."

(talking about "trickle-down" economics) "Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own...Well it's time for them to own their failure."

"You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq."

"We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have built, and we are here to restore that legacy."

The celebration has ended and the hard work begins in earnest. There are 67 days until Election Day and there are miles to go before we sleep.

Gobama!

Greatest line of this campaign, so far

More in common than you think....



Courtesy of Roger Ailes (the liberal blogger, not the Fox News Head Liar In Charge):

The McCain campaign keeps emphasizing that McCain was a prisoner in Vietnam, as proof of his qualification for the Presidency.

Well, so was Gary Glitter, and I'm not voting for him either.


heh

Obama '08: One Spouse, One House

Well, this has certainly been an interesting past few days while waiting for my exclusive (ZOMG!!!111) text from Senator Obama. After pretty much pulling even in most polls after a month of relentless negative advertising, Senator John McCain really went and put his $500 Italian leather loafer in his mouth when he botched this most simple of Q&As:

Q: How many houses do you have?
McCain: I'm not sure....I have to check with my staff. I'll have them get [the number] to you.

Wow...for a politician who is not shy about throwing the "elitist" label at his opponent, Senator McNopoly doesn't sound like a "man of the people" when he stumbles on the number of houses his family has.

The correct answer of course, is multiple houses.....reports vary from four to up to twelve properties that McCain and his wife own. The key words here being "his wife"

You see, my friends, Cindy Lou McCain (nee Hensley) is the heiress to an Arizona beer distributorship that is valued at $100 million dollars. When McCain dumped his disabled wife and three children to marry Cindy in 1980, he signed a prenup that clearly separated his finances from the Hensley family fortune. However, McCain also received a plum job at the distributorship and a healthy infusion of that beer money to fund his first run for Congress in 1982.

So, John McCain is married to a $100 million woman who owns up to 12 luxurious properties around the U.S., all in her name. McCain could have said, in effect, that he doesn't own a single piece of property in the U.S. Of course, he would have to explain that he's been riding a gravy train for the past 28 years and that "Mommy" owns him lock, stock and barrel....but that wouldn't sound too "Mavericky". It would sound like McCain handed over his testicles when he said "I do"

The McCain campaign's initial response to the kefluffle over "Housegate" was another in a disturbing series of exploitative references to what McCain himself has pledged he would never exploit for political gain:

[McCain spokesman Brian Rogers] also added: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.

Wonderful...."leave my guy alone about the multiple mansions because he was shot down and held prisoner by the Viet Cong 40 years ago". The "noun, verb, POW" defense was also used to defend McCain against charges that he cheated during the evangelical forum he and Obama attended last weekend. What's that line about the well and dipping once too often?

What this amounts to is - while McCain has spent over a month battering Obama with negative ads and speeches attacking him on any number of platforms ("elitist", "celebrity", "no experience", "too exotic-looking" for the Appalachian regions) and has succeeded in raising Obama's negatives in polling, he hasn't focused on one line of attack that would serve to define Obama negatively in the voters' minds. And, yesterday, he handed the Obama campaign the one effective line of attack that would blunt McCain's claims of legitimacy and experience. Obama is already on TV with ads blistering McCain's "experience" of the last 30 years as enjoying the life of Riley on his wife's dime. Obama cannot rely on the common sense of the American voter by saying simply "I will end the war in Iraq, my opponent will continue it for 100 years"...he needs to knock McCain from his imaginary pedestal and reveal to the voters that the Maverick has no clothes (or, at least, any that weren't bought by Suga Momma Cindy).

So, remind me again - who's the elitist in this race? The guy raised by a single mother (at times, on food stamps) who went to Columbia and Harvard Law on merit scholarships? Or the son and grandson of Naval Admirals who married into a $100 million fortune, a sizable chunk of which has underwritten his political career, including this Presidential campaign?

It's a shame that all those millions in advertisting, consulting fees and strategy sessions to come up with an attack plan went up in smoke in the course of one afternoon. Pity.


UPDATE:
Oh thank God.....a bonafide and legitimate surrogate has emerged to defend Senator McLandBaron from these wicked attacks.......Robin Leach:

"He probably was confused as to which homes are in his name, his wife's name, or corporate names," Leach explained in his familiar, deep British baritone. "In his attempt to be honest, he put his foot in his mouth."

FUCKING CRAZIER UPDATE:
This shit is now officially Out. Of. Control.:

The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain's tax returns.

Holy shit.....am I to understand, if you consider the median household income in the United States in 2007 was $48, 201, that John McCain and Beer Money Cindy spent over five times as much on servants as the typical household earns in an entire year? Didn't shit like this lead to the French Revolution?

Johnny Desperado Strikes Again

Forget President, I think he's running for God

It must be quite the season of despair and tumult in the McCain '08 campaign....the last few weeks have not been exactly kind to him. To wit:

• July 10th - McCain's top economic adviser, Sen. Phil Gramm, takes the high road and calls hard-working taxpayers struggling to cope with skyrocketing costs in every sector of their lives "whiners" who are all lathered up over a "mental recession". Professor Charles Xavier must have unleashed this "mental" recession because it is a motherfucker that has wiped out five banks in one year, including the third-largest collapse in U.S. history.


• July 16th - It is revealed that, during his first run for the Senate in 1986, Senator McCain told a joke at a fundraiser that is definitely "Maverick"-esque....as in, you have to have some set of balls on you to tell a piece of shit joke like this in public:

According to the Tucson Citizen, here's what McCain, then a two-term Congressman from Mesa, said during his run for the Senate:
"Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, 'Where is that marvelous ape?'"

Charming, isn't it? Just the sort of sparkling wit needed to win over those delusional holdout Hillary supporters. Speaking of the Clintons, don't think they were spared the blade in Johnny's Joke Karavan....even if his target was a teenager. Somehow, I doubt we'd see Obama making "ho" jokes about Cindy McCain.

• July 21st - Senator McCain graced the Queen City with his presence....or should I say graced his donors because he kept the public and the press at a safe distance. Unless you ponied up megabucks to nibble on tenderloin at Tony Gioia's backyard or cozied up to the candidate at Albright-Knox, you were shit out of luck. Well, he did clear a cool $1 million, which should go a long way to close the $30 million fundraising gap with Obama in the 2nd quarter of this year.


• July 21st - The unrivaled foreign policy expert in the election apparently forgot about a little land mass between Iraq and Pakistan called Afghanistan

• July 20-27 - Senator McCain has taunted Obama for weeks about his supposed lack of foreign policy experience and, specifically, his absence in Iraq or Afghanistan over the past two years to see conditions on the ground for himself. Obama's response? Hit the road and make your opponent look like a jackass. Imagine that - the dirty-fucking-hippie-Muslim-Socialist-American-hating candidate being cheered by our troops and respected by international heads of state. Not to mention, Iraq's Prime Minister Maliki endorsed Obama's 16-month troop withdrawal plan, much to the consternation of the McCain campaign and the Bush White House. They apparently thought it was A-OK with the Iraqis if we hung around for a few hundred years. Damn ingrates wanting self-rule!

With Obama's overseas tour continuing in Israel and headed to widely anticipated speeches in Berlin, Paris and London, poor Senator McCain could do little but pout like a spurned ex-girlfriend about how his formerly lickspittlish press sycophants "abandoned" him. Waaaaaa.

And then we come to the sad events of yesterday where, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, Senator McCain actually said the following:



Let's look at that quote:

"...It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign..."

Someone should advise the Senator that this is what he has surrogates and operatives for. Let the 3rd rate hacks from the conservative think tanks and the Fox News idiots spew this garbage. Not only is it unseemly for a Presidential candidate to insult and question his opponent's patriotism, he also accomplished the neat trick of spitting in the face of the better-than-60% of registered voters who want a withdrawal from Iraq along the lines Obama is proposing. Good job in winning those independents over to your side, Senator.

Wes Clark Is Making Sense; Therefore, He Must Be Destroyed

General Wesley Clark on Face The Nation, 6/29/08:


CLARK: Because in the matters of national security policy making, it's a matter of understanding risk. It's a matter of gauging your opponents, and it's a matter of being held accountable. John McCain's never done any of that in his official positions. I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn't a wartime squadron. He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, "I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not, do you want to take the risk, what about your reputation, how do we handle this publicly? He hasn't made those calls, Bob.

SCHIEFFER: Can I just interrupt you? I have to say, Barack Obama hasn't had any of these experiences either, nor has he ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.

CLARK: I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president. (emphasis mine)


I think General Clark is absolutely right in his comments and he's being quite bold in going after McCain's sole advantage in the General Election. A reasonable-thinking person sees the quote above and can discern that, yes Wes Clark, a fellow decorated Vietnam vet, honors John McCain's service and his time in captivity as a POW, but he's saying that being a POW isn't any more or less of a qualification to be president than is being a community organizer and editor of the Harvard Law Review....or a failed oilman and owner of a major league baseball team. McCain will get as much mileage as he can out of his time in captivity; but what has that experience taught him? How has it made him a better candidate? This is a Senator, after all, who is in lockstep with the current administration in wanting to prolong the Iraq debacle another few decades or so. Not to mention the sad spectre of a former POW, a man tortured so severely that he cannot raise his arms above his head, voting to authorize the President to torture whomever he deems worthy.

General Clark isn't "swiftboating" John McCain...he's neither demeaning nor insulting McCain's service in the worst imaginable conditions - he's asking a relevant and wholly legitimate question. How did the 5+ years John McCain suffered as a POW make him a better candidate for President? If the press is going to give McCain a pass on this, why then did they mock and belittle Admiral James Stockdale, Ross Perot's running mate in 1992 and a man who spent 7 years being beaten and tortured in the same POW prison as McCain?

Of course, Republicans desperate for anything to distract the voters away from how badly they've fucked up the nation over the past 7 years will distort Clark's statement and intent as if to show that he's demeaning McCain's service. Nevermind that a scant four years ago, these assholes had no problem questioning the service and patriotism of another Vietnam vet wounded in action:

But in 2008, no one is questioning John McCain's service or his patriotism. Wes Clark just said McCain was a hero of his. No one at the Democratic National Convention will be wearing "Purple Heart Band-Aids" or mock "Hanoi Hilton" pajamas. No Democratic pundit will be appearing on "Hardball" to push the idea that McCain got special treatment in the POW prison or that he should be held accountable for making taped confessions after years of getting his brains beat in.

But let's not pretend that McCain is the second coming of Eisenhower.

P.S. George McGovern, the worst embodiment of liberal evil incarnate in the 20th century and History's Greatest Monster, flew 35 bombing missions in World War II and won the Distinguished Flying Cross as a B-24 pilot without once being shot down or captured. No wonder he got trounced in the electoral college 520-17 against Nixon in '72.

P.P.S. Tonight's statement from Wesley Clark:

"There are many important issues in this Presidential election, clearly one of the most important issues is national security and keeping the American people safe. In my opinion, protecting the American people is the most important duty of our next President. I have made comments in the past about John McCain's service and I want to reiterate them in order be crystal clear. As I have said before, I honor John McCain's service as a prisoner of war and a Vietnam Veteran. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. I would never dishonor the service of someone who chose to wear the uniform for our nation.

John McCain is running his campaign on his experience and how his experience would benefit him and our nation as President. That experience shows courage and commitment to our country - but it doesn't include executive experience wrestling with national policy or go-to-war decisions. And in this area, his judgment has been flawed - he not only supported going into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq, but has time and again undervalued other, non-military elements of national power that must be used effectively to protect America. But as an American and former military officer, I will not back down if I believe someone doesn't have sound judgment when it comes to our nation's most critical issues.”

Cheers to him for sticking up for his own common sense. Jeers to the Obama campaign for leaving him out to dry.