"In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. He long ago abandoned his signature issues of immigration reform and global warming; his talk of “victory” in Iraq has little to offer a war-weary nation; and his Reagan-inspired ideology of starving government and shredding regulation lies in tatters on Wall Street."

October 8, 2008
New York Times Editorial
Politics of Attack

It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember.

They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.

Despite the occasional slip (referring to Mr. Obama’s “cronies” and calling him “that one”), Mr. McCain tried to take a higher road in Tuesday night’s presidential debate. It was hard to keep track of the number of times he referred to his audience as “my friends.” But apart from promising to buy up troubled mortgages as president, he offered no real answers for how he plans to solve the country’s deep economic crisis. He is unable or unwilling to admit that the Republican assault on regulation was to blame.

Ninety minutes of forced cordiality did not erase the dismal ugliness of his campaign in recent weeks, nor did it leave us with much hope that he would not just return to the same dismal ugliness on Wednesday.

Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult. “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America,” Ms. Palin has taken to saying.

That line follows passages in Ms. Palin’s new stump speech in which she twists Mr. Obama’s ill-advised but fleeting and long-past association with William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and confessed bomber. By the time she’s done, she implies that Mr. Obama is right now a close friend of Mr. Ayers — and sympathetic to the violent overthrow of the government. The Democrat, she says, “sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

Mr. McCain’s aides haven’t even tried to hide their cynical tactics, saying they were “going negative” in hopes of shifting attention away from the financial crisis — and by implication Mr. McCain’s stumbling response.

We certainly expected better from Mr. McCain, who once showed withering contempt for win-at-any-cost politics. He was driven out of the 2000 Republican primaries by this sort of smear, orchestrated by some of the same people who are now running his campaign.

And the tactic of guilt by association is perplexing, since Mr. McCain has his own list of political associates he would rather forget. We were disappointed to see the Obama campaign air an ad (held for just this occasion) reminding voters of Mr. McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five savings-and-loan debacle, for which he was reprimanded by the Senate. That episode at least bears on Mr. McCain’s claims to be the morally pure candidate and his argument that he alone is capable of doing away with greed, fraud and abuse.

In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. He long ago abandoned his signature issues of immigration reform and global warming; his talk of “victory” in Iraq has little to offer a war-weary nation; and his Reagan-inspired ideology of starving government and shredding regulation lies in tatters on Wall Street.

But surely, Mr. McCain and his team can come up with a better answer to that problem than inciting more division, anger and hatred.

A new poll just released by KPIX, San Francisco's CBS television affiliate, reveals a shocking shift in support for Proposition 8. According to the poll, likely California voters now favor passage of Prop 8 by a five-point margin, 47 percent to 42 percent, following a recent blitz of advertising by supporters of the initiative. Meanwhile, an internal poll just released by the "No on 8" campaign confirms the KPIX poll numbers, showing Prop 8 winning 47%-43%.

I have one big issue with Prop 8. NO ONE, Government OR religion should be able to abridge anyone's rights, including their right to marry whom they choose. Everything after that including the Bible and prejudiced views of GLBT folks is just a bunch of claptrap. Vote no on 8...and while you're paying attention vote no on 4 too. Check out this No on 8 ad...it's farcical and funny.

As the McCain/Palin campaign craters in the national polls, mr "straight talk" needs to figure out that he's running the risk of doing even more damage to the country than when he "sang" to the Viet Cong.

From Ed Naha
"This week, look for more McCain nonsense, from ads claiming that Obama is an alien to Ol' John gnawing through TV cables. Also, look for some more fine musings from Pert Palin. Over the weekend, she actually declared: ""I'm reading on my Starbucks mocha cup, ok? The quote of the day... It was Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State (the crowd boos) and UN ambassador. ... Now she said it, I didn't. She said, 'There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women.'"

When the audience cheered, Palin grinned: "Okay, now, thank you so much for receiving that well. I didn't know how that was gonna go over. And now, California, let's see what a comment like I just made, how that is turned into whatever it'll be turned into tomorrow with the newspaper."

Well, the problem lies either with Starbucks or Palin's goo-goo eyes. The actual quote is "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't HELP other women."

Albright told "The Huffington Post," "Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women. The truth is, if you care about the status of women in our society and in our troubled economy, the best choice by far is Obama-Biden.""

as transcribed by Steve Young

In what may be the most damaging of the slow but sure dissemination of the CBS News Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential nominee was unable to name all of her kids' names.

Transcript follows:

Katie Couric: And when it comes to establishing your family view, I was curious: what are the names you use when you want to speak to your children?

Sarah Palin: I've spoke with most of them, again with a great appreciation for my children, my family, for the younger people who live with me.

KC: But, like, what ones specifically? I'm curious.

SP: All of 'em, any of 'em that have been in front of me over all these years.

KC: Can you name a few?

SP: I have a vast variety of children and of course, they all have names. My family isn't a foreigner's family, where, it's kind of suggested and it seems like, 'Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of what children in Washington, D.C. may be named when you live up there in Alaska?' Believe me, my Alaskan family is like a microcosm of most American's families. Did I mention, Katie, that I can see many of my children from my house.

In other VP debate news, Dem VP nominee, Joe Biden, offers kinescope evidence of President Franklin Roosevelt calming American's fears at the start of the depression.

TV Heads Up: Before the debate, watch tonight as World Champion Limbo dancer, Ben Dover, attempts to get under the bar set for Palin.

"The globalization of the debt puts the United States in the position that in order to repay the money that we borrow from the banks (for the banks) we could be forced to accept International Monetary Fund dictates which involve cutting health, social security benefits and all other social spending in addition to reducing wages and exploiting our natural resources. This inevitably leads to a loss of economic, social and political freedom."

Beyond being wrong in principle and a taxpayer rip-off, Kucinich's quote is some real food for thought. No wonder there was so much of a public outcry and revolt from both the left and the right. It stinks.

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose
handwas caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a
conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah
Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President .

The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post
turtle was.

The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you
come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post
turtle.'

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued
to explain. 'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't
belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just
wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'

Well, here's another great reason to repeal California's "super majority" rule to pass the state budget. I hope Arnold sits on his blue pencil and takes it where he's sticking it to low-income seniors.

Arnold Raises Taxes on Low-Income Seniors
by Paul Hogarth‚ Sep. 25‚ 2008

As if this year's state budget wasn't horrific enough, the Governor just made it worse. By exercising his constitutional power to "blue-pencil" out specific items, Arnold Schwarzenegger abolished the Senior Citizens Renters' Tax Assistance—a 40-year-old program that gives rebates to low-income elderly tenants of up to $347.50 a year. He also took $41 million out of a similar tax credit program for low-income homeowners. A Governor who wouldn't even restore the top income tax bracket for rich people to Reagan-era levels somehow found it appropriate to abolish a modest tax credit for vulnerable seniors. As momentum grows to repeal the two-thirds rule to pass a state budget (which has paralyzed our state government year after year), it's also time to repeal the Governor's ability to "blue pencil" items out—which he has now abused twice in two years.

I was waiting in a line to get into a concert at the Sierra Nevada Big Room the other day when I overheard a conversation between a female Obama supporter and a male McCain supporter. Almost immediately the talk steered toward Sarah Palin. The McCain man was singing the party line and mentioned something about Sarah's speech at the RNC. The Obama woman pounced on that like a dog on a bone. She said something like, "Yeah, she didn't even write that speech...it sounded to me like it was written by Karl Rove!" To which the McCain man responded with his belief that Sarah had written the speech and "Where did you hear that? On the Internet?"

About that time they were joined in the line by another woman and I screamed, "Wait a minute sweetie, no jumping line!" Well not really. It was cool in this context. Anyway, the Obama woman welcomed her friend with, "It's a good thing you came when you did, we were talking politics." It's also a good thing because I was about to jump into their conversation with the facts: Sarah Palin's RNC speech was written by one of GW Bush's speechwriters Matthew Scully. By all accounts Sarah did a fine job mouthing the words...but she certainly did not write them. Yeah, yeah, I know, most national politicians don't write all or even any of their important speeches, but they come to own them when they are delivered.

According to the following article, Sarah Palin's job in Alaska is being handled by McCain surrogates as well.

Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin talks to the media prior to her meeting with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The McCain campaign is speaking for the Alaska state government these days, especially when it wants to ensure that nothing embarrassing about Gov. Sarah Palin emerges before Election Day.

Questions for the Palin administration are most often answered by McCain staffers, including Meghan Stapleton, a former Palin spokeswoman; Taylor Griffin, who worked for President Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004; and Ed O'Callaghan, a McCain campaign lawyer and former federal prosecutor from New York.

They have clamped down on information flowing out of state government, especially when it comes to the so-called Troopergate investigation. The inquiry centers on whether Palin abused her power by firing the public safety commissioner after he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. The McCain group even attached a "truth squad" moniker to Troopergate news conferences this week.

The presidential race has kept Palin out of Alaska for all but three days since Sen. John McCain announced on Aug. 29 that he had chosen her as his running mate. This week, Palin was in New York for her first-ever meetings with world leaders, a trip to the World Trade Center site and an interview with CBS' Katie Couric.

Even Palin's lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell, said keeping in touch has been difficult. And since hackers broke into Palin's Yahoo e-mail account last week, he said, it has dropped off entirely.

"Until she was hacked, we were communicating just about daily. Now I'm talking with her chief of staff," Parnell said. "I saw her in person when she came home about a week ago, but I haven't spoken to her since."

In Palin's absence, messages left with the governor's office are usually returned by the McCain campaign. A recent request for information was answered by a governor's spokesman with a sad smile and a shake of the head.

Even a message left on the cell phone of a hometown friend of Palin was returned by a McCain campaign staffer. The friend agreed to be interviewed by a reporter only after she was reassured the campaign had given its approval.

Such actions, not unusual when a governor runs for national office, have prompted questions in close-knit Alaska about whether Palin has abdicated too much of her role. The Anchorage Daily News asked in an editorial, "Is it too much to ask that Alaska's governor speak for herself, directly to Alaskans, about her actions as Alaska's governor?"

"I think that with the Troopergate thing kind of unfolding the way it is, it would seem to make more sense for her to be around, at least be available," said Graham Smith, a 28-year-old employee for an oil and gas industry trade group who was drinking coffee outside an Anchorage cafe. "She might be paying attention, she might not. Nobody really knows because she's off doing her campaign thing."

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister, who largely vanished from the public eye the first half of September, emerged this week and denied that Palin had disengaged.

"The fact of the matter is the McCain campaign is not running state government. We want to talk to the press but we want to do so in a way that separates state government from national politics," he said. "We're going to try to walk a fine line."

John W. Katz, special counsel to Palin, said the governor has made it clear "that she is in charge, she's in touch and all the gubernatorial decisions are going past her." Aides cited the appointment of a new state public safety commissioner, which she approved during her three-day visit back to Alaska earlier this month.

McAllister said no major policy decisions are pending, her staff is compiling next year's budget requests and she is in daily communication by phone and e-mail with her chief of staff.

Parnell, meanwhile, said he has taken over giving many of Palin's speeches and has taken a more active interest in Alaska's budget and the governor's legislative agenda.

"I'm speaking several more times a week _ like, for instance, I'm about to go meet the president of Iceland," Parnell said.

___

Associated Press writers Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza and contributed to this report.

An ABC/Wash Post poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent. As a point of comparison, neither of the last two Democratic nominees -- John F. Kerry in 2004 or Al Gore in 2000 -- recorded support above 50 percent in a pre-election poll by the Post and ABC News.

And for those of you who enjoy such things, a possible preview of the next McCain corruption scandal. Oh, he's a rebel alright!

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING [1]

John McCain's CAMPAIGN MANAGER, Rick Davis took a leave of absence -- that is, he "stopped taking a salary" -- from his lobbying firm in 2006... but that firm has been accepting FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS a MONTH until...

LAST MONTH. [2] For, apparently, no reason. No work has been done by Davis's firm on behalf of Freddie Mac since Davis "stopped drawing a salary." John McCain and his campaign claimed as recently as TWO DAYS AGO that Rick Davis has NOTHING TO DO with Freddie Mac. Nothing. And that he has NEVER lobbied for Freddie Mac.

Why was Freddie Mac paying Rick Davis's lobbying firm $15 THOUSAND a MONTH until 24 days ago? [3]

THIS IS F***ING HUGE.

No, seriously. If this is not THE NUMBER ONE STORY in the media this week, there is something VERY VERY VERY wrong with the media and with us for not MAKING them cover it as the NUMBER ONE STORY.

Because THIS IS FUCKING HUGE.

Connect the dots: McCain... Rick Davis... Freddie Mac... FINANCIAL APOCALYPSE... Government Bail Out.

John McCain = CORRUPTION

He has two choices (aside from simply throwing his hands in the air and admitting to the American people that his campaign is a disaster and, further, properly reflects what his Administration would look like): Either he throws Davis under the bus and claims total ignorance -- which makes him look... totally ignorant; or they circle the wagons and McCain marches into the Valley of Death with a huge, flashing red sign over his head that says: MOST CORRUPT CANDIDATE EVER. And a tattoo on his forehead that reads: PROPERTY OF FREDDIE MAC.

Naturally, it appears the McCain campaign has opted for the latter approach. And the only thing standing between their SUCCEEDING at this outrageous tack and the whole goddamned country erupting into Watergate-sized horror at this... is the media -- and us.
_______
Rage, rage against the Lying of the Right [4]

About author
Maryscott O'Connor runs the liberal community blog, MY LEFT WING [5], featured on the , right beneath the Pope on Easter Sunday a year after she created it. She was NOT pleased with the picture and would like you to know that she is not even CLOSE to being that grotesquely unattractive.