After eight years as the poster boy for gut-decision uninformed leadership by a man who called the Constitution "just a piece of paper,".... the incurious Decider's sorry legacy will be legions of like-minded dummies.
Proof of the decline of an educated U.S. populace was highlighted by Kathleen Parker in "Voters Fail the Test." (WaPo)
As Parker says, "So much for the wisdom of The People.
"A new report from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) on the nation's civic literacy finds that most Americans are too ignorant to vote.
"Out of 2,500 American quiz-takers, including college students, elected officials and other randomly selected citizens, nearly 1,800 flunked a 33-question test on basic civics."
Here's the scary part.... "In fact, elected officials scored slightly lower than the general public with an average score of 44 percent compared to 49 percent.
"Most bracing: Only 27 percent of elected officeholders in the survey could identify a right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment."
That's right, our leaders. You know, the ones deciding all things that affect our daily lives.
Really not surprising since we watched incredulously as John McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin.... the governor of a state.... didn't know the duties of the next office she sought, the vice presidency of our country. She thought the Vice President "ran" the Senate.
Of those taking the test, "Forty-three percent didn't know what the Electoral College does. And 46 percent didn't know that the Constitution gives Congress power to declare war."
What's behind this dumbing down of America?
"The ISI found that passive activities, such as watching television (including TV news) and talking on the phone, diminish civic literacy."
What increases civic literacy?
"Actively pursuing information through print media and participating in high-level conversations -- even, potentially, blogging -- makes one smarter. "
That's right.... blogging! Bloggers personify the First Amendment.... you know, freedom of speech, freedom of the press.
Only a sorry 0.8 percent of all test-takers scored an 'A.'
Parker points out, "America's report card may come as little surprise to fans of Jay Leno's man-on-the-street interviews, which reveal that most people don't know diddly about doohickey. Still, it's disheartening in the wake of a populist-driven election celebrating joes-of-all-trades to be reminded that the voting public is dumber than ever."
Let's face it.... most of the economic trouble we are in has come about because people didn't understand the loan agreements they were signing, financial institutions didn't understand the far-reaching ramifications of their actions, and our government was unable to anticipate the severity of.... and appropriately regulate.... this financial house of cards.
It's hopeful that an intellectual Barack Obama prevailed over the McCain-Palin hillbilly-pandering roadshow. As The Decider would put it.... "Our children is learning!"
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Facing Down GOP's Devils
The GOP is at a crossroads. Will they take the social conservative route to please the religious right and Paliniacs, or a more moderate road with a bigger tent than social policy and anti-intellectualism.
Christine Todd Whitman, who headed Bush's EPA from 2001 to 2003 and is currently co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council, wades into the debate in "Free the GOP - The Party Won't Win Back the Middle as Long As It's Hostage to Social Fundamentalists" (WaPo)
It's not the first time Whitman has been the canary in the coal mine. After the 2004 election Whitman published, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," which she co-authored with this article's co-author, Robert Bostock.
Whitman says of that 2004 book...."Our central thesis was simple: The Republican Party had been taken hostage by 'social fundamentalists,' the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. Unless the GOP freed itself from their grip, we argued, it would so alienate itself from the broad center of the American electorate that it would become increasingly marginalized and find itself out of power."
It's 2008, and the GOP is out of power.
The GOP ignored Whitman's fading canary call as John McCain allowed himself to become co-opted by Bush/Rove social fundamentalists and upstaged by their Vacuous Valkyrie, Sarah Palin.
The new sell-out McCain.... as opposed to the mythical 2000 maverick.... didn't attract moderates, and so he lost even though his percentage of "value voters" increased. As Whitman explains, "McCain actually won more votes from self-identified white evangelical/born-again voters than Bush did four years ago -- 1.8 million more. But that was not enough to offset the loss of so many moderates."
As for Palin's value to the ticket, Whitman calls it as she see it, "Palin has many attractive qualities as a candidate. Being prepared to become president at a moment's notice was not obviously among them this year. Her selection cost the ticket support among those moderate voters who saw it as a cynical sop to social fundamentalists, reinforcing the impression that they control the party, with the party's consent."
Whitman accuses the GOP of suffering from a political Stockholm syndrome, "In the wake of the Democrats' landslide victory, and despite all evidence to the contrary, many in the GOP are arguing that John McCain was defeated because the social fundamentalists wouldn't support him.
"They seem to be suffering from a political strain of Stockholm syndrome. They are identifying with the interests of their political captors and ignoring the views of the larger electorate. This has cost the Republican Party the votes of millions of people who don't find a willingness to acquiesce to hostage-takers a positive trait in potential leaders
.
"Unless the Republican Party ends its self-imposed captivity to social fundamentalists, it will spend a long time in the political wilderness. On Nov. 4, the American people very clearly rejected the politics of demonization and division. It's long past time for the GOP to do the same."
There may be a glimmer of hope for those who identify with Whitman's clarion call for the Republican party to flee their social conservative captors. It comes from GOP governors who are holding a summit in Miami.... though McCain's Trophy Vice must have thought she was still in Alaska.... "Sarah Palin gets cold reception in Sunshine State GOP gathering" (NYDailyNews)
It was clear that the state governors thought it was grown-up time, a time to address substantive issues. As once-considered-for-VP Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota pointedly said, " 'Drill, baby, drill!' by itself is not an energy policy" referring to the chant that became a staple of Palin's rallies - the target of his tweak was clear."
Social fundamentalists take no prisoners, give no ground. The question remains... can the GOP be deprogrammed? Possibly, with a soul-searching intervention by determined moderate voices in the GOP. But it will be an ugly exorcism.
Christine Todd Whitman, who headed Bush's EPA from 2001 to 2003 and is currently co-chair of the Republican Leadership Council, wades into the debate in "Free the GOP - The Party Won't Win Back the Middle as Long As It's Hostage to Social Fundamentalists" (WaPo)
It's not the first time Whitman has been the canary in the coal mine. After the 2004 election Whitman published, "It's My Party Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America," which she co-authored with this article's co-author, Robert Bostock.
Whitman says of that 2004 book...."Our central thesis was simple: The Republican Party had been taken hostage by 'social fundamentalists,' the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion, gay rights and stem cell research. Unless the GOP freed itself from their grip, we argued, it would so alienate itself from the broad center of the American electorate that it would become increasingly marginalized and find itself out of power."
It's 2008, and the GOP is out of power.
The GOP ignored Whitman's fading canary call as John McCain allowed himself to become co-opted by Bush/Rove social fundamentalists and upstaged by their Vacuous Valkyrie, Sarah Palin.
The new sell-out McCain.... as opposed to the mythical 2000 maverick.... didn't attract moderates, and so he lost even though his percentage of "value voters" increased. As Whitman explains, "McCain actually won more votes from self-identified white evangelical/born-again voters than Bush did four years ago -- 1.8 million more. But that was not enough to offset the loss of so many moderates."
As for Palin's value to the ticket, Whitman calls it as she see it, "Palin has many attractive qualities as a candidate. Being prepared to become president at a moment's notice was not obviously among them this year. Her selection cost the ticket support among those moderate voters who saw it as a cynical sop to social fundamentalists, reinforcing the impression that they control the party, with the party's consent."
Whitman accuses the GOP of suffering from a political Stockholm syndrome, "In the wake of the Democrats' landslide victory, and despite all evidence to the contrary, many in the GOP are arguing that John McCain was defeated because the social fundamentalists wouldn't support him.
"They seem to be suffering from a political strain of Stockholm syndrome. They are identifying with the interests of their political captors and ignoring the views of the larger electorate. This has cost the Republican Party the votes of millions of people who don't find a willingness to acquiesce to hostage-takers a positive trait in potential leaders
.
"Unless the Republican Party ends its self-imposed captivity to social fundamentalists, it will spend a long time in the political wilderness. On Nov. 4, the American people very clearly rejected the politics of demonization and division. It's long past time for the GOP to do the same."
There may be a glimmer of hope for those who identify with Whitman's clarion call for the Republican party to flee their social conservative captors. It comes from GOP governors who are holding a summit in Miami.... though McCain's Trophy Vice must have thought she was still in Alaska.... "Sarah Palin gets cold reception in Sunshine State GOP gathering" (NYDailyNews)
It was clear that the state governors thought it was grown-up time, a time to address substantive issues. As once-considered-for-VP Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota pointedly said, " 'Drill, baby, drill!' by itself is not an energy policy" referring to the chant that became a staple of Palin's rallies - the target of his tweak was clear."
Social fundamentalists take no prisoners, give no ground. The question remains... can the GOP be deprogrammed? Possibly, with a soul-searching intervention by determined moderate voices in the GOP. But it will be an ugly exorcism.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
"Orphan Annie" Palin
Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.
But in this case, Sarah Palin may have earned the role of the failed McCain campaign's Orphan Annie.
Not to pile on, but the nation needs to know how close it came to electing this cartoon-of-a-candidate as the president-in-waiting.
Thanks to Newsweek's release of the highlights of their Special Election Report, we now know that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent, couldn't name the U.S., Canada and Mexico as the countries in NAFTA... in short there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency." (HuffingtonPost)
Of course, we must halt right here. Just why didn't the campaign know she was borderline ignorant about matters of national import? But that is another story. This one is about orphan Sarah.
The $150,000 spending spree on clothes?.... it was Sarah who spent the money, and it was much more than reported. One campaign aide characterized it as , "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."
Newsweek learned that "...Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent 'tens of thousands' more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband."
The embarrassing interview with Katie Couric?.... her staff wanted to prep her but she refused, and then when she bombed she turned on them. She read all her press clippings, throwing "tantrums" over the more critical ones.
"Palin was apparently a nightmare for her campaign staff to deal with. She refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Fox News reported, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw 'tantrums' over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears." (HuffingtonPost)
It was reported that "McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign." So he was evidently worse than surprised when "Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting." (HuffingtonPost)
So, is this just campaign-insider sour grapes from the losing McCain camp? Anyone who watched Palin's pathetic Couric interview knows better. Palin, perhaps deservedly, is the perfect orphan of McCain's failure.
But unlike Orphan Annie, Palin seems to be permanently separated from Daddy Warbucks McCain. As for the country.... leapin' lizards, that was a close one!
But in this case, Sarah Palin may have earned the role of the failed McCain campaign's Orphan Annie.
Not to pile on, but the nation needs to know how close it came to electing this cartoon-of-a-candidate as the president-in-waiting.
Thanks to Newsweek's release of the highlights of their Special Election Report, we now know that Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent, couldn't name the U.S., Canada and Mexico as the countries in NAFTA... in short there was great concern within the McCain campaign that Palin lacked "a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency." (HuffingtonPost)
Of course, we must halt right here. Just why didn't the campaign know she was borderline ignorant about matters of national import? But that is another story. This one is about orphan Sarah.
The $150,000 spending spree on clothes?.... it was Sarah who spent the money, and it was much more than reported. One campaign aide characterized it as , "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast."
Newsweek learned that "...Nicolle Wallace had told Palin to buy three suits for the convention and hire a stylist. But instead, the vice presidential nominee began buying for herself and her family—clothes and accessories from top stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. According to two knowledgeable sources, a vast majority of the clothes were bought by a wealthy donor, who was shocked when he got the bill. Palin also used low-level staffers to buy some of the clothes on their credit cards. The McCain campaign found out last week when the aides sought reimbursement. One aide estimated that she spent 'tens of thousands' more than the reported $150,000, and that $20,000 to $40,000 went to buy clothes for her husband."
The embarrassing interview with Katie Couric?.... her staff wanted to prep her but she refused, and then when she bombed she turned on them. She read all her press clippings, throwing "tantrums" over the more critical ones.
"Palin was apparently a nightmare for her campaign staff to deal with. She refused preparation help for her interview with Katie Couric and then blamed her staff, specifically Nicole Wallace, when the interview was panned as a disaster. After the Couric interview, Fox News reported, Palin turned nasty with her staff and began to accuse them of mishandling her. Palin would view press clippings of herself in the morning and throw 'tantrums' over the negative coverage. There were times when she would be so nasty and angry that her staff was reduced to tears." (HuffingtonPost)
It was reported that "McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign." So he was evidently worse than surprised when "Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting." (HuffingtonPost)
So, is this just campaign-insider sour grapes from the losing McCain camp? Anyone who watched Palin's pathetic Couric interview knows better. Palin, perhaps deservedly, is the perfect orphan of McCain's failure.
But unlike Orphan Annie, Palin seems to be permanently separated from Daddy Warbucks McCain. As for the country.... leapin' lizards, that was a close one!
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
The Last Dance.... Vote!
"It began in Iowa.... Now, U.S. decides." (DMRegister)
It was a whirlwind of anticipation, excitement and finally exhaustion for Iowans.... their 2008 first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.
John McCain treated the Iowa caucuses like the wallflower at the nominating prom, and saved his dances for the flashier primaries.
More than a year ago, McCain slashed his Iowa caucus campaign staff and blew off the Ames Republican straw poll in August. He finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses this January.... but cornered the GOP nomination.
When he returned to Iowa, McCain bragged about voting against the farm bill, and he never warmed to ethanol.
But now McCain is courting his Iowa wallflower.... he needs Iowa's electoral college delegates.
"I'm going to give you a little straight talk today and one of them is, as you know, we need to win Iowa," McCain said in Cedar Falls last week.
But McCain's wooing seems too little too late. Iowa voters know that it was Barack Obama who courted Iowa, built a strong organization, inspired first-time voters, reached across lines of division and won the caucuses.... eclipsing the preordained prom Queen, Hillary Clinton.
And Obama returned to Iowa to thank the voters when he secured the nomination.
Obama's win in Iowa not only put him on the road to the Democratic nomination, but as he told Iowans at a rally in Des Moines this week, "it vindicated my faith in the American people".... a faith that looked past the color of his skin to measure the content of his character.
Eugene Robinson, a black columnist for the Washington Post, said it best today in "A New Kind of Pride" .... "an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That's the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated....
"Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won't change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the Democratic Party nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams.
"We can all have a new kind of pride in our country."
Amen.
Vote.
It was a whirlwind of anticipation, excitement and finally exhaustion for Iowans.... their 2008 first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.
John McCain treated the Iowa caucuses like the wallflower at the nominating prom, and saved his dances for the flashier primaries.
More than a year ago, McCain slashed his Iowa caucus campaign staff and blew off the Ames Republican straw poll in August. He finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses this January.... but cornered the GOP nomination.
When he returned to Iowa, McCain bragged about voting against the farm bill, and he never warmed to ethanol.
But now McCain is courting his Iowa wallflower.... he needs Iowa's electoral college delegates.
"I'm going to give you a little straight talk today and one of them is, as you know, we need to win Iowa," McCain said in Cedar Falls last week.
But McCain's wooing seems too little too late. Iowa voters know that it was Barack Obama who courted Iowa, built a strong organization, inspired first-time voters, reached across lines of division and won the caucuses.... eclipsing the preordained prom Queen, Hillary Clinton.
And Obama returned to Iowa to thank the voters when he secured the nomination.
Obama's win in Iowa not only put him on the road to the Democratic nomination, but as he told Iowans at a rally in Des Moines this week, "it vindicated my faith in the American people".... a faith that looked past the color of his skin to measure the content of his character.
Eugene Robinson, a black columnist for the Washington Post, said it best today in "A New Kind of Pride" .... "an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That's the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated....
"Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won't change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the Democratic Party nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams.
"We can all have a new kind of pride in our country."
Amen.
Vote.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Iowa's Turning Blue!
The headline: "New Iowa Poll: Obama widens lead over McCain." (DMRegister)The gap: Obama 54% - McCain 37%
The deal breaker: "Best able to fix U.S. economy:" Obama 51% - McCain 39%. And, 58% of likely voters saw this as the most important trait in the candidates.
McCain's strong suit is national security, the question was who "can best keep America secure:" Obama 47% - McCain 45%.
Fair play? Who "has run the least negative campaign:" Obama 57% - McCain 21%.
Looking toward the future, who "will be the most successful in unifying the country:" Obama 59% - McCain 33%.
So.... will McCain's desperate ads drudging up Rev. Wright, or accusing Obama of being a socialist, or the scare-tactic robo calls turn the tide against Obama. Seems like they are having the opposite effect, although the Rovian dirty tricks worked in 2000 and 2004.
But this time, in 2008, looking at the shambles the Bush White House has made of the country's economy and foreign policy.... Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, ouch! Fool us three times, no way!!
Don't let the polls lull you into complacency.... you still must VOTE. It really matters!
Sunday, November 02, 2008
We Thought We Knew Him
Just who is Sen. John McCain?
As Maureen Down asks today in "Who's the Question Mark?" (NYTimes).... "In the final moments of the most gripping campaign in modern history, John McCain is still trying to costume Barack Obama as a dangerous enigma.
"But, in an odd and remarkable reversal, it is McCain who is the enigma, even though he entered the race with one of the best brands in American politics."
Dowd notes that "The McCain campaign specializes in erratica, while the Obama campaign continues to avoid any dramatica."
So just how was it that the man who was one of the most knowable politicians in America..... the Straight-Talking maverick Senator who made the press swoon.... morphed into a political alien? A crooked-talking Bushie insider spouting inanities such as "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."?
Dowd says it was when McCain hired replacement campaign manager Steve Schmidt last summer. Schmidt shackled McCain, "turning the vibrant and respected McCain into a shell of his former self.
"Schmidt abruptly cut off the oxygen supply to McCain's brain" and he became the question mark of the campaign, Dowd opines. The social McCain become "whiny, angry, vengeful and bitter."
Campaign tactics became a see-what-sticks-to-the-wall game of murky constantly-shifting policies and Obama character assassination-by-association.
McCain, like W, likes to depend on his gut for decisions, the most rumbling of which was the selection of Palin the Unpalatable.
For Dowd the "ultimate riddle is this: Why doesn't McCain question why he has become a question mark?"
Like much of the press, Dowd may have a McCain blind spot. She may not want to see that McCain allowed himself to be shackled. That he bought into the Rovian spinmeisters schemes.
And that the relentless spotlight of a fiercely-contested long campaign season exposed the very empty character-vessel beneath McCain's well-crafted public facade.
Vote. It really matters!
As Maureen Down asks today in "Who's the Question Mark?" (NYTimes).... "In the final moments of the most gripping campaign in modern history, John McCain is still trying to costume Barack Obama as a dangerous enigma.
"But, in an odd and remarkable reversal, it is McCain who is the enigma, even though he entered the race with one of the best brands in American politics."
Dowd notes that "The McCain campaign specializes in erratica, while the Obama campaign continues to avoid any dramatica."
So just how was it that the man who was one of the most knowable politicians in America..... the Straight-Talking maverick Senator who made the press swoon.... morphed into a political alien? A crooked-talking Bushie insider spouting inanities such as "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."?
Dowd says it was when McCain hired replacement campaign manager Steve Schmidt last summer. Schmidt shackled McCain, "turning the vibrant and respected McCain into a shell of his former self.
"Schmidt abruptly cut off the oxygen supply to McCain's brain" and he became the question mark of the campaign, Dowd opines. The social McCain become "whiny, angry, vengeful and bitter."
Campaign tactics became a see-what-sticks-to-the-wall game of murky constantly-shifting policies and Obama character assassination-by-association.
McCain, like W, likes to depend on his gut for decisions, the most rumbling of which was the selection of Palin the Unpalatable.
For Dowd the "ultimate riddle is this: Why doesn't McCain question why he has become a question mark?"
Like much of the press, Dowd may have a McCain blind spot. She may not want to see that McCain allowed himself to be shackled. That he bought into the Rovian spinmeisters schemes.
And that the relentless spotlight of a fiercely-contested long campaign season exposed the very empty character-vessel beneath McCain's well-crafted public facade.
Vote. It really matters!
Saturday, November 01, 2008
The Days Dwindle Down....
Imagine Sinatra crooning.... "and the days dwindle down to a precious few.... September, November.... "
Take comfort, it's almost over.
Next Tuesday will end the phony "My friends," the brassy "You betchas" .... and Webster can quit spinning as word-bludgeons such as "elite" and "maverick" recede back to their actual meaning, not gimmicky soundbites.
The Decider governed by soundbites.
He justified his Iraq crusade because of Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" under the banner of "freedom on the march," and then "Mission Accomplished."
Then, when it wasn't accomplished, those who wanted to end the war wouldn't "stay the course," wanted to "cut and run," wanted to "lose" in Iraq, were unpatriotic, didn't support the troops.... and on and on.
It should have been abundantly clear by 2004 that we were a duped nation being led by a sloganeering unfit dunce of a president. We winced when he fractured the English language.... "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?."
But this Freudian slip should have sent cold chills when The Decider uttered during his re-election campaign.... "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
You can't say we weren't warned.
The "new way" was the trickle-down-enabled mushrooming debt and financial meltdown that has brought the country to the brink.
And, now the 72-year-old-Senator McSame, who voted with The Decider over 90 percent of the time, and bragged that he supported Bush on all his major initiatives, is trying his best to extend the Bush years by feeding misinformation and downright lies to the electorate.
Not able to defeat him on the field of ideas, McSame has waged a by-association smear and distortion campaign against Barack Obama.... not stopping at character innuendos implying Obama is unAmerican, a pal of terrorists, a socialist, and not-like-us in "real America."
McCain named a journalism-media major, fast-talking Annie Oakley wanna-be as his sidekick. Why? Because Silly Sarah was qualified? Not even close. Because she could deliver the far-right base and the lines fed to her by McSame's hired Rovian guns.
We can shed this shallow, Bush/McCain propagandizing cabal. So, as the days dwindle down to a precious few....
Vote. It really matters!
Take comfort, it's almost over.
Next Tuesday will end the phony "My friends," the brassy "You betchas" .... and Webster can quit spinning as word-bludgeons such as "elite" and "maverick" recede back to their actual meaning, not gimmicky soundbites.
The Decider governed by soundbites.
He justified his Iraq crusade because of Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" under the banner of "freedom on the march," and then "Mission Accomplished."
Then, when it wasn't accomplished, those who wanted to end the war wouldn't "stay the course," wanted to "cut and run," wanted to "lose" in Iraq, were unpatriotic, didn't support the troops.... and on and on.
It should have been abundantly clear by 2004 that we were a duped nation being led by a sloganeering unfit dunce of a president. We winced when he fractured the English language.... "Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?."
But this Freudian slip should have sent cold chills when The Decider uttered during his re-election campaign.... "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
You can't say we weren't warned.
The "new way" was the trickle-down-enabled mushrooming debt and financial meltdown that has brought the country to the brink.
And, now the 72-year-old-Senator McSame, who voted with The Decider over 90 percent of the time, and bragged that he supported Bush on all his major initiatives, is trying his best to extend the Bush years by feeding misinformation and downright lies to the electorate.
Not able to defeat him on the field of ideas, McSame has waged a by-association smear and distortion campaign against Barack Obama.... not stopping at character innuendos implying Obama is unAmerican, a pal of terrorists, a socialist, and not-like-us in "real America."
McCain named a journalism-media major, fast-talking Annie Oakley wanna-be as his sidekick. Why? Because Silly Sarah was qualified? Not even close. Because she could deliver the far-right base and the lines fed to her by McSame's hired Rovian guns.
We can shed this shallow, Bush/McCain propagandizing cabal. So, as the days dwindle down to a precious few....
Vote. It really matters!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
George Will Skewers McCain
John McCain incessantly attacks Barack Obama over not taking matching campaign funds from the government (taxpayers) as he did. Obama out-raised him many times over through small public donations..... not PAC money, not registered lobbyists.
McCain tries to make a sinister case.... Obama broke his word, where is his money really coming from. Defense of Obama's campaign fund-raising comes from an unlikely source, conservative columnist George Will in "Call Him John the Careless."
Will points out, "McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: 'So, who is the villain?'
"McCain revived a familiar villain -- 'huge amounts' of political money -- when Barack Obama announced that he had received contributions of $150 million in September. 'The dam is broken,' said McCain, whose constitutional carelessness involves wanting to multiply impediments to people who want to participate in politics by contributing to candidates -- people such as the 632,000 first-time givers to Obama in September.
"Why is it virtuous to erect a dam of laws to impede the flow of contributions by which citizens exercise their First Amendment right to political expression? 'We're now going to see,' McCain warned, 'huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal.'
"The supposedly inevitable scandal, which supposedly justifies preemptive government restrictions on Americans' freedom to fund the dissemination of political ideas they favor, presumably is that Obama will be pressured to give favors to his September givers. The contributions by the new givers that month averaged $86."
Will dismisses McCain's tempest-in-a-teapot campaign funding scolds, reasoning that "by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips."
And silly Sarah Palin didn't escape Will's pen either. He writes, "From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism."
Will continues, "Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain's saddle than his association with George W. Bush. Did McCain, who seems to think that Palin's never having attended a 'Georgetown cocktail party' is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency, lift an eyebrow when she said that vice presidents 'are in charge of the United States Senate' "?
George Will doesn't suffer fools gladly.
And while he has not endorsed anyone for president, his comments on how McCain handled the financial meltdown almost seemed to, as he wrote in "McCain Loses His Head" (WaPo).... "Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."
Vote. It really matters!
McCain tries to make a sinister case.... Obama broke his word, where is his money really coming from. Defense of Obama's campaign fund-raising comes from an unlikely source, conservative columnist George Will in "Call Him John the Careless."
Will points out, "McCain has a history of reducing controversies to cartoons. A Republican financial expert recalls attending a dinner with McCain for the purpose of discussing with him domestic and international financial complexities that clearly did not fascinate the senator. As the dinner ended, McCain's question for his briefer was: 'So, who is the villain?'
"McCain revived a familiar villain -- 'huge amounts' of political money -- when Barack Obama announced that he had received contributions of $150 million in September. 'The dam is broken,' said McCain, whose constitutional carelessness involves wanting to multiply impediments to people who want to participate in politics by contributing to candidates -- people such as the 632,000 first-time givers to Obama in September.
"Why is it virtuous to erect a dam of laws to impede the flow of contributions by which citizens exercise their First Amendment right to political expression? 'We're now going to see,' McCain warned, 'huge amounts of money coming into political campaigns, and we know history tells us that always leads to scandal.'
"The supposedly inevitable scandal, which supposedly justifies preemptive government restrictions on Americans' freedom to fund the dissemination of political ideas they favor, presumably is that Obama will be pressured to give favors to his September givers. The contributions by the new givers that month averaged $86."
Will dismisses McCain's tempest-in-a-teapot campaign funding scolds, reasoning that "by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips."
And silly Sarah Palin didn't escape Will's pen either. He writes, "From the invasion of Iraq to the selection of Sarah Palin, carelessness has characterized recent episodes of faux conservatism."
Will continues, "Some polls show that Palin has become an even heavier weight in John McCain's saddle than his association with George W. Bush. Did McCain, who seems to think that Palin's never having attended a 'Georgetown cocktail party' is sufficient qualification for the vice presidency, lift an eyebrow when she said that vice presidents 'are in charge of the United States Senate' "?
George Will doesn't suffer fools gladly.
And while he has not endorsed anyone for president, his comments on how McCain handled the financial meltdown almost seemed to, as he wrote in "McCain Loses His Head" (WaPo).... "Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."
Vote. It really matters!
Broder's McCain
Today David Broder wrote a thoughtful op-ed entitled "What We've Learned About McCain." (WaPo)
He reviewed what we already know about John McCain.... his military service and Senate history.... and then he zeroed in on his current performance as wanna-be president.
Broder opines, "We suspected, and soon had confirmed, that he had limited interest in, and capacity for, the organization and management of large enterprises. His first effort at building a structure for the 2008 presidential race collapsed in near-bankruptcy, costing him the service of many longtime aides. From beginning to end, the campaign that followed has been plagued by internal feuds and McCain's inability to resolve them.
"The shortcoming was intellectual as well as bureaucratic. Like Jimmy Carter, the only Naval Academy graduate to reach the Oval Office, McCain had an engineer's approach to policymaking. He had no large principles that he could apply to specific problems; each fresh question set off a search for a 'practical' solution. He instinctively looked back to Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive era, with its high-mindedness and disdain for the politics of doling out favors to interest groups. But those instincts coexisted uneasily with his adherence to traditional, Reagan-era conservatism -- a muscular foreign policy, a penchant for tax-cutting and a fondness for business."
Considering Broder's long friendship and support of both George W. Bush and his political guru Karl Rove, this is quite a startling analysis. In fact, it reads like The Decider's approach to governing.... McCain has "limited interest in, and capacity for, the organization and management of large enterprises".... McCain's "shortcoming was intellectual as well as bureaucratic." Wow!
And, he truthfully notes, that while McCain's instincts are high-minded, his actions support Reagan-era conservatism including "a fondness for business."
While giving McCain credit for being engaging and a survivor, Broder still worries that with a McCain presidency, "the country will have to hope this campaign has honed his leadership skills."
The country doesn't have to "hope"..... with Barack Obama in the White House we'll have a president with demonstrated intellectual acuity, and the management and leadership skills necessary for this critical time in the country's history.
Vote. It really matters!
He reviewed what we already know about John McCain.... his military service and Senate history.... and then he zeroed in on his current performance as wanna-be president.
Broder opines, "We suspected, and soon had confirmed, that he had limited interest in, and capacity for, the organization and management of large enterprises. His first effort at building a structure for the 2008 presidential race collapsed in near-bankruptcy, costing him the service of many longtime aides. From beginning to end, the campaign that followed has been plagued by internal feuds and McCain's inability to resolve them.
"The shortcoming was intellectual as well as bureaucratic. Like Jimmy Carter, the only Naval Academy graduate to reach the Oval Office, McCain had an engineer's approach to policymaking. He had no large principles that he could apply to specific problems; each fresh question set off a search for a 'practical' solution. He instinctively looked back to Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive era, with its high-mindedness and disdain for the politics of doling out favors to interest groups. But those instincts coexisted uneasily with his adherence to traditional, Reagan-era conservatism -- a muscular foreign policy, a penchant for tax-cutting and a fondness for business."
Considering Broder's long friendship and support of both George W. Bush and his political guru Karl Rove, this is quite a startling analysis. In fact, it reads like The Decider's approach to governing.... McCain has "limited interest in, and capacity for, the organization and management of large enterprises".... McCain's "shortcoming was intellectual as well as bureaucratic." Wow!
And, he truthfully notes, that while McCain's instincts are high-minded, his actions support Reagan-era conservatism including "a fondness for business."
While giving McCain credit for being engaging and a survivor, Broder still worries that with a McCain presidency, "the country will have to hope this campaign has honed his leadership skills."
The country doesn't have to "hope"..... with Barack Obama in the White House we'll have a president with demonstrated intellectual acuity, and the management and leadership skills necessary for this critical time in the country's history.
Vote. It really matters!
Our Amazing Shrinking Economy
It defies common sense.... as our "Economy Shrinks in Third Quarter," (WaPo) John McCain is still campaigning on a tax platform of tax cuts for the wealthy.
The theory is that giving tax breaks to the top 5% of taxpayers (corporations) will create jobs and benefits that "trickle down" to strengthen the "fundamentals of our economy."
We all know how that turned out... not just once, but time and again.
Ronald Reagan ran the country into deep debt with his "credit card" economy; Bush 41 dug the hole deeper (Clinton got it back on track); and Bush 43's dismal failure of trickle-down, tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy Reaganomics has resulted in bringing the country's economy to its knees.
The news today... the "U.S. economy shrank from July through September, confirming an economic slowdown that was already showing itself through steady job losses and declining consumer sales.
"Gross Domestic Product fell 0.3 percent on an annualized basis for the third quarter of the year, as consumers and businesses both curbed spending."
But it could have been much worse.... if government hadn't "increased their spending by 1.15 percent to GDP."
Yet in the face of this colossal failure, McCain is still pushing voo-doo Reaganomics, calling Barack Obama's tax plan to give tax breaks to the middle class socialism and worse.
McCain the magician wants you to keep your eyes on the pretty lady while presenting his slight-of-hand amazing shrinking economy.
Voters have seen this trick before. Vote. It really matters!
The theory is that giving tax breaks to the top 5% of taxpayers (corporations) will create jobs and benefits that "trickle down" to strengthen the "fundamentals of our economy."
We all know how that turned out... not just once, but time and again.
Ronald Reagan ran the country into deep debt with his "credit card" economy; Bush 41 dug the hole deeper (Clinton got it back on track); and Bush 43's dismal failure of trickle-down, tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy Reaganomics has resulted in bringing the country's economy to its knees.
The news today... the "U.S. economy shrank from July through September, confirming an economic slowdown that was already showing itself through steady job losses and declining consumer sales.
"Gross Domestic Product fell 0.3 percent on an annualized basis for the third quarter of the year, as consumers and businesses both curbed spending."
But it could have been much worse.... if government hadn't "increased their spending by 1.15 percent to GDP."
Yet in the face of this colossal failure, McCain is still pushing voo-doo Reaganomics, calling Barack Obama's tax plan to give tax breaks to the middle class socialism and worse.
McCain the magician wants you to keep your eyes on the pretty lady while presenting his slight-of-hand amazing shrinking economy.
Voters have seen this trick before. Vote. It really matters!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Religious Right.... They're Baaack!
It's downright spooky.
As journalist Christine Wicker exposes today in "Evangelical Leaders Using God Like a Hired Gun" (HuffingtonPost) when the branding of Barack Obama as the anti-Christ, palling around with terrorists, and a secret Muslim didn't work, they started "using God like a hired gun to terrorize the town's people, the evangelical Christian mullahs are declaring that Obamageddon is at hand....
"...using that very word and asking as the Religious Right/Republican Townhall magazine did in a September headline, 'Could We Survive a Barack Presidency?'
"Evangelical publisher James Strang answers the survival question by warning his readers that people who hate Christianity will take over the country once Obama is elected.
"In fact, 'life as we know it will end,' Strang writes."
You can hear the wind howling, sense the ghouls skulking in wait, the Four Horsemen bearing down.....
Wicker continues, "Last week Focus on the Family's James Dobson added his own doomsday predictions with a 16-page rant about evils that will befall the United States by 2012 if Obama is elected."
But young evangelical leaders are resisting using God as their hired gun. Dobson blames misguided young evangelicals for elevating Obama. Wicker points out, "It's them he's hoping to scare most. But they and emergent church leaders such as Brian McLaren, who endorsed Obama, have broken ranks and won't be coming back.
"A great mass of other evangelicals, who never followed the evangelical mullahs and never will, are also going for Obama. Maybe Dobson thinks they'll listen to him."
But that's not likely, they're already off pursuing their own causes, and "won't be convinced by Dobson's scare tactics. They're more likely to agree with a new bumper sticker popular in Colorado, where Focus on the Family is based.
"It reads, 'Focus on your own damn family.' "
Dobson, sure that he could shoo Republican primary voters away from the Senator, said in a Focus on the Family press release that McCain "is being touted by the media as a man of principle, yet he was involved with other women while married to his first wife, and was implicated in the so-called Keating scandal with four other senators.
"He was eventually reprimanded by the Congress for the 'appearance of impropriety.' The Senator reportedly has a violent temper and can be extremely confrontational and profane when angry. These red flags about Senator McCain's character are reminiscent of the man who now occupies the White House."
"The man who now occupies the White House".... oh yes, the last guy the Religious Right elected.
And Dobson didn't leave out of that release McCain's love of alcohol and gambling.
Wicker, shining light in dark places, explains "When Dobson saw that threats to take his toys and go home didn't keep McCain from winning the nomination, he forgot his previous scruples. Now Dobson sees McCain as God's man. It's Obama who's the devil. And under God's direction, as he always is, Dobson is speaking out again...."
In his current sixteen-page delusional tirade against Obama, Dobson channels the things that could happen if Christians don't unite behind McCain.... the same McCain he branded as an adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, drinker and gambler who he is now anointing to preside over the most powerful elective office in the world.
It almost the bewitching hour. Hopefully the Religious Right's false soothsayers will be defanged and return to being merely pompous pumpkins. God must be so proud....
Vote! It matters.
As journalist Christine Wicker exposes today in "Evangelical Leaders Using God Like a Hired Gun" (HuffingtonPost) when the branding of Barack Obama as the anti-Christ, palling around with terrorists, and a secret Muslim didn't work, they started "using God like a hired gun to terrorize the town's people, the evangelical Christian mullahs are declaring that Obamageddon is at hand....
"...using that very word and asking as the Religious Right/Republican Townhall magazine did in a September headline, 'Could We Survive a Barack Presidency?'
"Evangelical publisher James Strang answers the survival question by warning his readers that people who hate Christianity will take over the country once Obama is elected.
"In fact, 'life as we know it will end,' Strang writes."
You can hear the wind howling, sense the ghouls skulking in wait, the Four Horsemen bearing down.....
Wicker continues, "Last week Focus on the Family's James Dobson added his own doomsday predictions with a 16-page rant about evils that will befall the United States by 2012 if Obama is elected."
But young evangelical leaders are resisting using God as their hired gun. Dobson blames misguided young evangelicals for elevating Obama. Wicker points out, "It's them he's hoping to scare most. But they and emergent church leaders such as Brian McLaren, who endorsed Obama, have broken ranks and won't be coming back.
"A great mass of other evangelicals, who never followed the evangelical mullahs and never will, are also going for Obama. Maybe Dobson thinks they'll listen to him."
But that's not likely, they're already off pursuing their own causes, and "won't be convinced by Dobson's scare tactics. They're more likely to agree with a new bumper sticker popular in Colorado, where Focus on the Family is based.
"It reads, 'Focus on your own damn family.' "
Dobson, sure that he could shoo Republican primary voters away from the Senator, said in a Focus on the Family press release that McCain "is being touted by the media as a man of principle, yet he was involved with other women while married to his first wife, and was implicated in the so-called Keating scandal with four other senators.
"He was eventually reprimanded by the Congress for the 'appearance of impropriety.' The Senator reportedly has a violent temper and can be extremely confrontational and profane when angry. These red flags about Senator McCain's character are reminiscent of the man who now occupies the White House."
"The man who now occupies the White House".... oh yes, the last guy the Religious Right elected.
And Dobson didn't leave out of that release McCain's love of alcohol and gambling.
Wicker, shining light in dark places, explains "When Dobson saw that threats to take his toys and go home didn't keep McCain from winning the nomination, he forgot his previous scruples. Now Dobson sees McCain as God's man. It's Obama who's the devil. And under God's direction, as he always is, Dobson is speaking out again...."
In his current sixteen-page delusional tirade against Obama, Dobson channels the things that could happen if Christians don't unite behind McCain.... the same McCain he branded as an adulterous, profane, violent, scandal-tainted, drinker and gambler who he is now anointing to preside over the most powerful elective office in the world.
It almost the bewitching hour. Hopefully the Religious Right's false soothsayers will be defanged and return to being merely pompous pumpkins. God must be so proud....
Vote! It matters.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
McSame: Too Many "Right" Turns
The steady pace of Republicans and right-leaning Independents endorsing Barack Obama is turning into a raging torrent. Emphasis on raging. The angst seems to be.... what happened to McCain.... what happened to the GOP?
Case in point is Anne Applebaum's op-ed today in the Washington Post, "Why McCain Lost Me." As an Independent who lived in England in the 1980s and1990s and was "truly comfortable" when Conservative Margaret Thatcher ran things, she wanted to support the McCain-Palin ticket.
But, as Applebaum explains, "I'm not voting for McCain -- and, after a long struggle, I've realized that I can't -- maybe it's worth explaining why, for I suspect there are other independent voters who feel the same. Particularly because it's not his campaign, disjointed though that has been, that finally repulses me: It's his rapidly deteriorating, increasingly anti-intellectual, no longer even recognizably conservative Republican Party. His problems are not technical; they do not have to do with ads, fundraising or tactics, as some have suggested. They are institutional; they have to do with his colleagues, advisers and supporters."
Applebaum sees.... "Fiscal conservatism, balanced budgets, sober spending -- all of these principles have been brushed away as so much nonsense for the past eight years by Republicans more interested in grandstanding about how much they hate Washington."
Then there is Charles McC Mathias Jr..... a Republican who represented Maryland in the U.S. House from 1961 to 1968 and in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1986.... writes today in "My Choice: Obama" (WaPo)
He explains: "Sens. Obama and McCain have vastly different backgrounds and strikingly different visions of how America should navigate these tumultuous times. For me, the decision on who should be the next president transcends private friendship or political affiliation.
"My decision is based on the long-range needs of our country and which of these two candidates I feel is better suited to recharge America's economic health, restore its prestige abroad and inspire anew all people who cherish freedom and equality. For me, that person is Barack Obama."
A puzzled Eugene Robinson reflects on McCain and his campaign in "Campaign on Empty." (WaPo) ".... when it could hardly be more obvious that Americans desperately want to change direction -- more than 80 percent tell pollsters the country is on the wrong track -- the Republicans offer nothing new."
Yet, McCain chose to walk in lockstep with the Bush-GOP thugocracy off the right-face of the political cliff.
Robinson continues, "McCain's repeated references to 'maverick' have drained all meaning from the word, but it's true that he's an iconoclast with little reverence for Republican orthodoxy. Why he chose, in an election that was always going to be decided by independents and Reagan Democrats, to campaign on a platform of slavish devotion to Republican orthodoxy is beyond me."
It seems the obvious answer is that he sold his "maverick" political persona to the Karl Rove, corporations-first, religious-right wing of the Republican party because he though they could deliver the presidency. In so doing he became inauthentic, and in all probability, unelectable.
As Obama asks, "The question in this election is not 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' We know the answer to that. The real question is, 'Will this country be better off four years from now?' "
The growing resounding answer.... certainly not with McSame in the White House.
Vote! It matters.
Case in point is Anne Applebaum's op-ed today in the Washington Post, "Why McCain Lost Me." As an Independent who lived in England in the 1980s and1990s and was "truly comfortable" when Conservative Margaret Thatcher ran things, she wanted to support the McCain-Palin ticket.
But, as Applebaum explains, "I'm not voting for McCain -- and, after a long struggle, I've realized that I can't -- maybe it's worth explaining why, for I suspect there are other independent voters who feel the same. Particularly because it's not his campaign, disjointed though that has been, that finally repulses me: It's his rapidly deteriorating, increasingly anti-intellectual, no longer even recognizably conservative Republican Party. His problems are not technical; they do not have to do with ads, fundraising or tactics, as some have suggested. They are institutional; they have to do with his colleagues, advisers and supporters."
Applebaum sees.... "Fiscal conservatism, balanced budgets, sober spending -- all of these principles have been brushed away as so much nonsense for the past eight years by Republicans more interested in grandstanding about how much they hate Washington."
Then there is Charles McC Mathias Jr..... a Republican who represented Maryland in the U.S. House from 1961 to 1968 and in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1986.... writes today in "My Choice: Obama" (WaPo)
He explains: "Sens. Obama and McCain have vastly different backgrounds and strikingly different visions of how America should navigate these tumultuous times. For me, the decision on who should be the next president transcends private friendship or political affiliation.
"My decision is based on the long-range needs of our country and which of these two candidates I feel is better suited to recharge America's economic health, restore its prestige abroad and inspire anew all people who cherish freedom and equality. For me, that person is Barack Obama."
A puzzled Eugene Robinson reflects on McCain and his campaign in "Campaign on Empty." (WaPo) ".... when it could hardly be more obvious that Americans desperately want to change direction -- more than 80 percent tell pollsters the country is on the wrong track -- the Republicans offer nothing new."
Yet, McCain chose to walk in lockstep with the Bush-GOP thugocracy off the right-face of the political cliff.
Robinson continues, "McCain's repeated references to 'maverick' have drained all meaning from the word, but it's true that he's an iconoclast with little reverence for Republican orthodoxy. Why he chose, in an election that was always going to be decided by independents and Reagan Democrats, to campaign on a platform of slavish devotion to Republican orthodoxy is beyond me."
It seems the obvious answer is that he sold his "maverick" political persona to the Karl Rove, corporations-first, religious-right wing of the Republican party because he though they could deliver the presidency. In so doing he became inauthentic, and in all probability, unelectable.
As Obama asks, "The question in this election is not 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' We know the answer to that. The real question is, 'Will this country be better off four years from now?' "
The growing resounding answer.... certainly not with McSame in the White House.
Vote! It matters.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Grinnell's Adelman for Obama
Another conservative endorsement for Barack Obama. This time from Ken Adelman, who was President Reagan's Ambassador to the U.N. and then Director of the U. S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and accompanied Reagan on his superpower summits with Mikhail Gorbachev.
And, Adelman has an Iowa connection.... he was a philosophy major at Grinnell College before attending Georgetown University, where he received a Masters in Foreign Service Studies and Doctorate in Political Theory.
Last Friday in a Huffington Post op-ed, "Why a Staunch Conservative Like Me Endorsed Obama," Adelman explains why he decided for the first time in his life to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate.
This paragraph about sums it up, "McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that."
Adelman rejects the Bush-McCain brand of conservatism... he labels himself as a "staunch conservative" but not a "neo con."
Adelman explains: "I was never liberal along the way (having campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, when at that hotbed of lefty politics, Grinnell College). I'm really a con-con.
"And not a staunch Republican, as I've never been to a Republican rally or convention. So I've considered myself less of a partisan than an ideologue. I cared about conservative principles, and still do, instead of caring about the GOP....
"Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years."
So... as we've seen time and time again these past few months, conservatives of character and conscience disavow the Bush-McCain failed faux-conservative ideology.
Adelman's final thought, "...I concluded that McCain would not -- could not -- be a good president. Obama just might be."
And, Adelman has an Iowa connection.... he was a philosophy major at Grinnell College before attending Georgetown University, where he received a Masters in Foreign Service Studies and Doctorate in Political Theory.
Last Friday in a Huffington Post op-ed, "Why a Staunch Conservative Like Me Endorsed Obama," Adelman explains why he decided for the first time in his life to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate.
This paragraph about sums it up, "McCain's temperament -- leading him to bizarre behavior during the week the economic crisis broke -- and his judgment -- leading him to Wasilla -- depressed me into thinking that "our guy" would be a(nother) lousy conservative president. Been there, done that."
Adelman rejects the Bush-McCain brand of conservatism... he labels himself as a "staunch conservative" but not a "neo con."
Adelman explains: "I was never liberal along the way (having campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964, when at that hotbed of lefty politics, Grinnell College). I'm really a con-con.
"And not a staunch Republican, as I've never been to a Republican rally or convention. So I've considered myself less of a partisan than an ideologue. I cared about conservative principles, and still do, instead of caring about the GOP....
"Granted, McCain's views are closer to mine than Obama's. But I've learned over this Bush era to value competence along with ideology. Otherwise, our ideology gets discredited, as it has so disastrously over the past eight years."
So... as we've seen time and time again these past few months, conservatives of character and conscience disavow the Bush-McCain failed faux-conservative ideology.
Adelman's final thought, "...I concluded that McCain would not -- could not -- be a good president. Obama just might be."
McSame Needs More Than Iowa!
"McCain Calls Iowa Crucial to Victory" (DMRegister) exhorting Iowans.... "to defy polls showing the Republican presidential nominee trailing in the state, and warned that Democrat Barack Obama had become overconfident. 'Now, he’s measuring the drapes. He’s planned his first address to the nation, before the election,' McCain said at a rally in Cedar Falls. 'I guess I’m kind of old-fashioned about these things. I prefer to let the voters weigh in before presuming the outcome.' ”
Where does he get this stuff?
It's hard to believe that this type of shallow campaign rhetoric ever worked in Iowa. But of course it did. In 2000 and 2004.
But not this time.
Anyone paying even half-attention knows that this time around it's different. Obama is constantly warning about not getting overconfident. Obama's rallying cry is.... "Remember New Hampshire".... where Hillary, who was down in the polls whooped Obama in the primaries.
He's taking nothing for granted in Iowa.... Obama has out-organized McCain and actively getting-out-the-vote.
Maybe McSame forgot that it was Iowa's "Yes we can" voters looking for change who launched Obama's winning nomination bid. They're proud of their cruical role in his success and looking ahead.
Yes Iowa can, did and will again.
Where does he get this stuff?
It's hard to believe that this type of shallow campaign rhetoric ever worked in Iowa. But of course it did. In 2000 and 2004.
But not this time.
Anyone paying even half-attention knows that this time around it's different. Obama is constantly warning about not getting overconfident. Obama's rallying cry is.... "Remember New Hampshire".... where Hillary, who was down in the polls whooped Obama in the primaries.
He's taking nothing for granted in Iowa.... Obama has out-organized McCain and actively getting-out-the-vote.
Maybe McSame forgot that it was Iowa's "Yes we can" voters looking for change who launched Obama's winning nomination bid. They're proud of their cruical role in his success and looking ahead.
Yes Iowa can, did and will again.
RNC: Man the Lifeboats!
With falling McCain poll numbers and 9 days until election day, the Republican National Committee is caught in the swells of a dilemma.... should they don their Navy whites and pour more wardrobe-money into McCain's leaking national campaign, or abandon the Straight Talk Depress and focus on Senate and House races that might yet be salvaged.
David Frum, former "axis of evil" Bush speechwriter, advises in his Sunday op-ed, "Sorry Senator, Let's Salvage What We Can." (WaPo)
McCain has captained what must be one of the worst-managed campaigns in recent memory.
He gave policy control to lobbyist campaign managers who crafted a ditto-Bush far-right corporatist message, picked a Moose-hunting creationist as his "anti-elite" partner (you really thought Hillary supporters would take to You Betcha' Palin?) and hired Rovian thugs to Swiftboat Obama as a pal of terrorists who is "not like us," not a part of "real America" where the campaign burrowed for votes.
And presto! McCain energized the most radical element of the GOP base and chased off the great moderate center of the electorate.
So.... well, duh.... McCain's losing.
"There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him" Frum moans.
Frum offers this save-what-you-can advice.... "In these last days before the vote, Republicans need to face some strategic realities. Our resources are limited, and our message is failing. We cannot fight on all fronts. We are cannibalizing races that we must win and probably can win in order to help a national campaign that is almost certainly lost. In these final 10 days, our goal should be: senators first."
In self-preservation, the GOP should pull-anchor on their McCain-campaign life-support. To accomplish this successfully the flagship commander should sublimate his ambition for a cause greater than himself. But it seems McCain's ambitions are greater than his grasp of such a cause.
Besides his erratic campaign efforts, a crippling blow was dealt to McCain's hopes at the meltdown of Wall Street and the Bush-Paulson-declared economic emergency... just hours after McCain had serenaded "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Still, the RNC and McCain stubbornly clung to his backward-leaning campaign even though he was listing badly. He resorted to easily-seen-through staged responses like "suspending my campaign" and "Joe the Plumber" who isn't a licensed plumber and doesn't pay his taxes.
And, it's not working.
The pivotal moment for the GOP is now.... will they man the lifeboats or go down with McCain's unseaworthy ship?
David Frum, former "axis of evil" Bush speechwriter, advises in his Sunday op-ed, "Sorry Senator, Let's Salvage What We Can." (WaPo)
McCain has captained what must be one of the worst-managed campaigns in recent memory.
He gave policy control to lobbyist campaign managers who crafted a ditto-Bush far-right corporatist message, picked a Moose-hunting creationist as his "anti-elite" partner (you really thought Hillary supporters would take to You Betcha' Palin?) and hired Rovian thugs to Swiftboat Obama as a pal of terrorists who is "not like us," not a part of "real America" where the campaign burrowed for votes.
And presto! McCain energized the most radical element of the GOP base and chased off the great moderate center of the electorate.
So.... well, duh.... McCain's losing.
"There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him" Frum moans.
Frum offers this save-what-you-can advice.... "In these last days before the vote, Republicans need to face some strategic realities. Our resources are limited, and our message is failing. We cannot fight on all fronts. We are cannibalizing races that we must win and probably can win in order to help a national campaign that is almost certainly lost. In these final 10 days, our goal should be: senators first."
In self-preservation, the GOP should pull-anchor on their McCain-campaign life-support. To accomplish this successfully the flagship commander should sublimate his ambition for a cause greater than himself. But it seems McCain's ambitions are greater than his grasp of such a cause.
Besides his erratic campaign efforts, a crippling blow was dealt to McCain's hopes at the meltdown of Wall Street and the Bush-Paulson-declared economic emergency... just hours after McCain had serenaded "the fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Still, the RNC and McCain stubbornly clung to his backward-leaning campaign even though he was listing badly. He resorted to easily-seen-through staged responses like "suspending my campaign" and "Joe the Plumber" who isn't a licensed plumber and doesn't pay his taxes.
And, it's not working.
The pivotal moment for the GOP is now.... will they man the lifeboats or go down with McCain's unseaworthy ship?
Sunday, October 26, 2008
McCain's Waterloo
Just how mentally fit is John McCain?
This week Christopher Hitchens, no-holds-barred writer and unapologetic supporter of the invasion of Iraq, endorsed Barack Obama. As his headline blares in Slate, "McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is just a disgrace."
Referring to the town hall debate, he observed that McCain seemed to be "someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses...
Hitchens continues, "McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendos and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendos and slanders for him."
In this same town hall debate, McCain called Obama "that one" and today in Waterloo, Iowa on "Meet the Press" with Tom Brokaw he was unable to remember the name of his endorser George Schultz who he finally had to refer to as "one other."
It was a jumpy, forced-jovial, even rude McCain facing Brokaw as he dismissed the endorsement of Obama on last week's "Meet the Press" by GOP Secretary of State Colin Powell.
McCain countered by listing his own five former secretaries of state who endorsed him.... "Jim Baker, Henry Kissinger, Larry Eagleburger, and Al Haig".... and then, ".....uh," and he started listing them over again. When he couldn't come up with the name of the 5th, the said "and one other."
Then, as Brokaw started to move on to another subject, McCain burst out "George Schultz!"
McCain "dismissed the sour poll numbers that show him trailing in his White House race against Democrat Barack Obama and said his campaign is 'doing fine.' " (WaPo)
He rejected the widespread consensus.... even among a host of influential conservatives.... that Sarah Palin is not qualified for the job and is hurting his campaign.... " 'I don't defend her. I praise her. She is exactly what Washington needs,' he said, and was equally dismissive of criticism about the Republican Party spending $150,000 on her wardrobe at high-end retailers.
But, as Judith Warner points out today about Palin and the status of women in politics in "No Ordinary Woman," (NYTimes) "...women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men."
Based on that sad observation, it seems McCain-Palin are a matched set.
Vote! It matters!
This week Christopher Hitchens, no-holds-barred writer and unapologetic supporter of the invasion of Iraq, endorsed Barack Obama. As his headline blares in Slate, "McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is just a disgrace."
Referring to the town hall debate, he observed that McCain seemed to be "someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses...
Hitchens continues, "McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendos and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendos and slanders for him."
In this same town hall debate, McCain called Obama "that one" and today in Waterloo, Iowa on "Meet the Press" with Tom Brokaw he was unable to remember the name of his endorser George Schultz who he finally had to refer to as "one other."
It was a jumpy, forced-jovial, even rude McCain facing Brokaw as he dismissed the endorsement of Obama on last week's "Meet the Press" by GOP Secretary of State Colin Powell.
McCain countered by listing his own five former secretaries of state who endorsed him.... "Jim Baker, Henry Kissinger, Larry Eagleburger, and Al Haig".... and then, ".....uh," and he started listing them over again. When he couldn't come up with the name of the 5th, the said "and one other."
Then, as Brokaw started to move on to another subject, McCain burst out "George Schultz!"
McCain "dismissed the sour poll numbers that show him trailing in his White House race against Democrat Barack Obama and said his campaign is 'doing fine.' " (WaPo)
He rejected the widespread consensus.... even among a host of influential conservatives.... that Sarah Palin is not qualified for the job and is hurting his campaign.... " 'I don't defend her. I praise her. She is exactly what Washington needs,' he said, and was equally dismissive of criticism about the Republican Party spending $150,000 on her wardrobe at high-end retailers.
But, as Judith Warner points out today about Palin and the status of women in politics in "No Ordinary Woman," (NYTimes) "...women will truly have arrived when the most mediocre among us will be able to do just as well as the most mediocre of men."
Based on that sad observation, it seems McCain-Palin are a matched set.
Vote! It matters!
McSame's Tax Cut and Palin Pipeline Myths
The Washington Post published a chart that was widely circulated showing the difference in the tax cuts or increases between the Obama and McCain Tax Proposals.
On it's face, it shows how McCain's plan gives huge breaks to the wealthy, while Obama's gives bigger breaks to the up-to-$111,645 income taxpayers. But this chart doesn't really tell the true story because the bottom two-thirds of the population are given only a third of the space on the graph, while the top 0.1% of the population - one in a thousand people - gets almost 10%.
Thanks to the blog site chartjunk, here is the weighted chart giving a truer picture of the tax plans:
On it's face, it shows how McCain's plan gives huge breaks to the wealthy, while Obama's gives bigger breaks to the up-to-$111,645 income taxpayers. But this chart doesn't really tell the true story because the bottom two-thirds of the population are given only a third of the space on the graph, while the top 0.1% of the population - one in a thousand people - gets almost 10%.
Thanks to the blog site chartjunk, here is the weighted chart giving a truer picture of the tax plans:
This weighted chart factors population distribution which depicts even more clearly that Obama's tax plan is the most beneficial to two-thirds of the population.... lower and middle class taxpayers.
**************
And, while we're on the subject of clearing up the record, let's address the outsiders-against-greed-and-corruption campaign blather about "maverick" Palin's touted Alaska pipeline.
As spelled out in "Palin pipeline terms curbed bids" (AP-USA Today) "Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.
"Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.
"And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles."
And, just what kind lobbying influence was at play?...."The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.
"Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million."
Does this sound like a reformer?.... an outsider who will come down hard on lobbyists and insiders, a maverick who will cut costs? And, Palin's fellow "maverick" McCain has a campaign, Senate office staff and policy advisers rife with lobbyists or former lobbyists.
The "maverick" campaign lingo is just more Rovian McSame-Bush say anything truth-be-damned tactics.
They're aimed at trying to convince the majority of Americans who think the country is going in the wrong direction that the McSame ticket is the agent of change.... to once again lure them with empty words to vote against their own best interests when in fact the McCain-Palin ticket is intent on continuing The Decider's power-grabbing corporatist ways.
Vote! It matters!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Greenspan... My Bad
During his run for the presidency in 2000, John McCain was drilled by a reporter about what he would do as president if something happened to then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
McCain, a self-described don't-know-much-about-the-economy, grinned and said.... "Well, I'd put sunglasses on him and prop him up like that guy in Weekend at Bernies."
Well "Bernie," who retired in 2006, was back on the Hill this Thursday where he told a Congressional committee that the economic crisis had shaken his very understanding of how markets work, and agreed that certain financial derivatives should be regulated... this from the anointed financial Maestro who heretofore vigorously resisted the "r" word.... "Greenspan Says He Was Wrong on Regulation." the Washington Post headline blares.
Greenspan's admission stuck at the very core of "trickle-down" Reaganomics as he lamented.... "I made a mistake, in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms."
Bernie thought unfettered, unregulated investment bankers and Wall Street would stifle their greed. Would let the obscene profits in their sticky palms trickle down to the middle class. Excuse me.... hah, hoo, hoo, hah, hah, hah.....!
Greed is the fairy-dust of Reaganomics. Greenspan's apparent successes in managing the economy from 1987 to 2006 were in fact illusory.... they came at the cost of building the biggest credit bubble in world history.... and the bubble has now burst.
Bernie actually saw it coming. Greenspan warned in his 2007 memoir that Washington was now "harboring a dysfunctional government.... Governance has become dangerously dysfunctional."
Now we're living with the shambles the Decider has wrought with his dysfunctional government.... a dysfunctional, deregulated, deficit-mushrooming disaster.
A stubborn McCain is now no longer interested in putting sunglasses on Bernie and propping him up since Thursday the genuinely perplexed Greenspan was hard-pressed to explain how formerly fundamental truths about how markets work could have proved so wrong.
McCain doesn't want to hear it. He's taking back the sunglasses and deserting Bernie.... he wants to ignore the demise of Bernie-Reaganomics and party on with Bush's economic agenda of tax-break-for-corporations and trickle-down lots-a-luck for the middle class.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Friday, October 24, 2008
McSame Blasts Bush
At this point in the arm-wrestle for the White House where brute exaggeration is too often employed, it is prudent to take only the words of the candidates themselves.
That is why John McCain's long litany aboard his Straight Talk Air last Wednesday is so revealing as "McCain Lambastes Bush Years.... "We Just Let Things Get Completely Out of Hand.' " (Washington Times)
And, this isn't just the slant of McCain's scorned "liberal media." As they say, "thanks to the miracle of technology" McCain's frustrated outburst was caught on tape by the Washington Times reporter.
Here's what McCain.... trying to distance himself from the eight-year reign of his party's President Bush.... had to say:
"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.
"Those are just some of them.... We just let things get completely out of hand."
McCain also noted how the Bush administration is failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers. In short, McCain lashed out at The Decider for dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat while leaving the country in a shambles.
So Bush did this all by himself? Where was Senator McSame during those eight disastrous years?
According to boasts by McCain during the 2008 campaign.... when he needed the GOP base and parroted the GOP "trickle down" mantra that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" .... McCain opined that President Bush did "a great job in leading the country," and that he had "voted with the president 90 percent of the time." McCain strongly affirmed that on "transcendent" issues, "the most important issues of our day," that he was "totally in agreement and support of President Bush." (YouTube)
But now, with the country teetering on the edge of financial collapse, McSame is trying to distance himself from The Decider's deeds.
His attempts to avoid blame are being trampled by the stampede of GOP faithfuls distancing themselves from McCain with endorsement of Barack Obama for president.... Christopher Buckley, son of conservative-movement icon WFB, and a now former-columnist for the National Review; Colin Powell, GOP Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Bush's first Secretary of State; and the latest Bush insider to do a mea culpa for his role in the administration, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Now it's the electorate's turn to speak. For an angry, misled and lied-to country, an accounting is coming.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
That is why John McCain's long litany aboard his Straight Talk Air last Wednesday is so revealing as "McCain Lambastes Bush Years.... "We Just Let Things Get Completely Out of Hand.' " (Washington Times)
And, this isn't just the slant of McCain's scorned "liberal media." As they say, "thanks to the miracle of technology" McCain's frustrated outburst was caught on tape by the Washington Times reporter.
Here's what McCain.... trying to distance himself from the eight-year reign of his party's President Bush.... had to say:
"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously.
"Those are just some of them.... We just let things get completely out of hand."
McCain also noted how the Bush administration is failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers. In short, McCain lashed out at The Decider for dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat while leaving the country in a shambles.
So Bush did this all by himself? Where was Senator McSame during those eight disastrous years?
According to boasts by McCain during the 2008 campaign.... when he needed the GOP base and parroted the GOP "trickle down" mantra that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" .... McCain opined that President Bush did "a great job in leading the country," and that he had "voted with the president 90 percent of the time." McCain strongly affirmed that on "transcendent" issues, "the most important issues of our day," that he was "totally in agreement and support of President Bush." (YouTube)
But now, with the country teetering on the edge of financial collapse, McSame is trying to distance himself from The Decider's deeds.
His attempts to avoid blame are being trampled by the stampede of GOP faithfuls distancing themselves from McCain with endorsement of Barack Obama for president.... Christopher Buckley, son of conservative-movement icon WFB, and a now former-columnist for the National Review; Colin Powell, GOP Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Bush's first Secretary of State; and the latest Bush insider to do a mea culpa for his role in the administration, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan.
Now it's the electorate's turn to speak. For an angry, misled and lied-to country, an accounting is coming.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Dorian McGray's 2008 Portrait
If.... when, unless an unimaginable "October Surprise" surfaces.... John McCain loses the election, it appears he'll have no one to blame but the new McSame. The McCain of 2000 would have had a good shot at overcoming the toxic Bush years by the force of his Straight Talk persona.
But then, most noticeably in the 2004 race where he literally embraced Bush and then started his pandering courtship of the religious right, McCain started trimming his Straight Talk sails in favor of what he perceived to be the prevailing voter-base wind....the Karl Rove base.... culminating a month ago with his naming of the unfitted vacuous but well-packaged Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Now in angry desperation, as he sees his chances slipping away, "McCain Tries To Push Past Palin Backlash." (WaPo)
Even after it was discovered that the RNC spent $150,000 on Silly Sarah's clothes, hair and makeup, "his campaign dismissed the latest controversy over his running mate as coming from elitists and not representing the opinions of average Americans."
What is more elitist than cloaking your VP in Saks runway-knockoffs while pretending she's "just like us."
No matter how McCain tries to spin it, he started losing his bi-partisan broad-base following when he caved to the GOP hard right that he had campaigned against and repudiated in 2000. And with his choice of Palin "a majority of voters now say McCain's vice presidential pick reflects poorly on the decisions he would make as president, according to the Post-ABC News poll. Overall, 52 percent of likely voters said they are less confident in McCain's judgment because of his surprise selection of Palin..."
At a rally today longtime friend of McCain and Barack Obama's choice for VP, Joe Biden, said after stumbling over the name of McCain that he did so "because I don't recognize him anymore. I used to know him well."
McSame has become the political portrait of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray bargained to retain his beautiful persona by having his ageing reflected only in his portrait. Untouched personally as his debauchery steals his soul, Gray's portrait turns into the disfigured, aging reflection of his true self.
The country has watched a similar ugly transformation in the portrait of McCain's campaign. Palin is but the latest cynical calculation of a candidate who traded his for-a-cause-larger-than-yourself instincts for political gain. Not a pretty picture.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
But then, most noticeably in the 2004 race where he literally embraced Bush and then started his pandering courtship of the religious right, McCain started trimming his Straight Talk sails in favor of what he perceived to be the prevailing voter-base wind....the Karl Rove base.... culminating a month ago with his naming of the unfitted vacuous but well-packaged Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Now in angry desperation, as he sees his chances slipping away, "McCain Tries To Push Past Palin Backlash." (WaPo)
Even after it was discovered that the RNC spent $150,000 on Silly Sarah's clothes, hair and makeup, "his campaign dismissed the latest controversy over his running mate as coming from elitists and not representing the opinions of average Americans."
What is more elitist than cloaking your VP in Saks runway-knockoffs while pretending she's "just like us."
No matter how McCain tries to spin it, he started losing his bi-partisan broad-base following when he caved to the GOP hard right that he had campaigned against and repudiated in 2000. And with his choice of Palin "a majority of voters now say McCain's vice presidential pick reflects poorly on the decisions he would make as president, according to the Post-ABC News poll. Overall, 52 percent of likely voters said they are less confident in McCain's judgment because of his surprise selection of Palin..."
At a rally today longtime friend of McCain and Barack Obama's choice for VP, Joe Biden, said after stumbling over the name of McCain that he did so "because I don't recognize him anymore. I used to know him well."
McSame has become the political portrait of Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray bargained to retain his beautiful persona by having his ageing reflected only in his portrait. Untouched personally as his debauchery steals his soul, Gray's portrait turns into the disfigured, aging reflection of his true self.
The country has watched a similar ugly transformation in the portrait of McCain's campaign. Palin is but the latest cynical calculation of a candidate who traded his for-a-cause-larger-than-yourself instincts for political gain. Not a pretty picture.
November 4. Vote. It matters!
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