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It's the economy stupid!

We are about to witness the biggest landslide in US political history. Everything is against the Republicans. History tells us that no incumbent party overlooking such an economic disaster, survives. Everything is pointing to wipeout. Never mind the fact that the Democrats have 8 out of the top 10 major issues going for them. None of that counts when it comes to the economy. Bill Clinton won well when the economy was on the down turn. This is different, the economy is an unmitigated disaster, who are they going to blame?

The Republicans.

It doesn’t matter that they have the most corrupt US government ever, the war in Iraq doesn’t matter. The “200 year old man” running for president doesn’t matter. Neither does the hillbilly running for VP. Forget about Hurricane Katrina, the health care in a mess, returned soldiers being in squalid conditions in hospitals. None of that matters. It’s the economy stupid! If you didn’t hear that, it’s THE ECONOMY STUPID!

To sum it all up, I give you Obama’s latest ad, which I couldn’t have said better.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/whoadvises_ad/

1,290 replies on “It's the economy stupid!”

Little Johnny Winston Howard outs himself as an “intuitive” racial bigot on Sep Radio.

“Prager asks Howard: ‘Why is it that English-speaking countries tend to share values and fight evil?”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/27/prager-howard-english/

(download the You-Tube radio )

Prager is a proponent of “American exceptionalism”, the view that the moral superiority of American values sometimes justifies unilateral action on the world stage, and that the U.S. should not always be constrained by international law or the United Nations in pursuit of its goals. Prager has been an enthusiastic supporter of the United States’ initiative in the War in Iraq,…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Prager

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http://xkcd.com/

This seat was considered safe earlier in the week

McConnell, Lunsford race a dead heat.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford are knotted in a statistical tie for McConnell’s seat, according to the latest Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll.

The poll found that each candidate would get the support of 41 percent of likely voters if the election were held today. But McConnell nudged ahead 45-44 when undecided likely voters who were leaning toward a candidate were included into the poll results.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080927/NEWS0106/809270303&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

First Presidential Debate: Obama Makes Important Personal and National Security Gains.

With Barack Obama gaining momentum, John McCain needed to change the dynamic in the race during tonight’s debate and to shift the focus of the campaign onto friendlier terrain. Instead, Democracy Corps research finds that McCain essentially held his ground in this debate, while Obama emerged with higher personal favorability and increased confidence in his ability to handle critical foreign policy and national security issues.

http://www.democracycorps.com/focus/2008/09/first-presidential-debate-obama-makes-important-personal-and-national-security-gains/

In total, Dole, a Republican, has spent more than three months in North Carolina in 2008. Her frequent travel across North Carolina this year is a departure from previous years, when she spent much less time in the state, a review of Senate travel records shows.

Dole’s critics say the amount of time she has spent in North Carolina during her first term – especially 2006, when records document less than two weeks of visits – suggest she is out-of-touch with voters in the state.

http://www.mgwashington.com/index.php/news/article/dole-boosts-travel-to-nc-in-election-year/1785/

Democratic spouses push Florida voter registration drive.

The wives of Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden drew a jam-packed crowd estimated at 8,000 to the Florida A & M University campus on Saturday, the end of the campaign’s two-week voter registration push aimed at turning out underrepresented voters in unprecedented numbers.

Michelle Obama promised to call the student who registered the most voters. The campaign reported signing up more than 250 new voters. And FAMU officials bragged that nearly 100 percent of the student body has been registered to vote.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/campaign-2008/story/704499.html

I thought this was interesting analysis about the debate. Proof that the pick of Palin for VP negated the Republican argument about experience against Obama.

But here’s the key to the viewer/pundit disparity. It took awhile for McCain to build up to it, but then he hammered it home near the end: Obama, he charged, lacked the “knowledge and experience” to be president.

Pundits highlighted that and said it was the key to McCain gaining at least a tie. But I didn’t hear a single person on TV point out: McCain just picked Palin for vice president! How, then, could he make such a charge against Obama?

My feeling is that the Couric interview might have done for McCain what the first Nixon-Kennedy debate did for Nixon in 1960 — a true watershed moment. The American voters finally “got it” about Palin and so McCain’s “best moment” against Obama either fell flat with many of them, or proved laughable. This was made all the more stark with Palin AWOL during the post-debate analysis — and Joe Biden all over the place.

But the pundits barely recognized this — and that’s why they scored the debate fairly even even as viewers seem to have rated it a landslide for Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/why-did-so-many-pundits-f_b_129880.html

It is now very clear that McCain ‘going to Washington’ was a big mistake. Rasmussen, the pollster that I trust most, and Gallup, my number two, both have McCain sliding and Obama surging. My take on the debate is that it will not help McCain. A senate deal might stop the slide, but I do not think it will help McCain, either. While we still have quite a bit of time left, I cannot see anything that would assist McCain narrow the gap sufficiently to be within striking distance by election day. With Florida and North Carolina now in play for Obama, and a lead for him in Virginia, I suspect that my 298 prediction will be exceeded.

Found via DailyKos, I think this is a good read on the debate…

Look for the appearance of the following words in days to come: cranky, grumpy, crotchety, angry, mean, rude, sneering, snarling, contemptuous, off-putting, snide, boorish, and worst of all, not Presidential. SNL will probably drive the point home in a skit that will become the dominant narrative tonight, and McCain will become boxed in regarding his behavior in the second debate, much as Gore was unable to be as aggressive as he wanted in the second debate (I remember the running joke was that Gore had been medicated for the second debate). And if McCain does not tone down the contempt, it will simply feed the narrative. Or, if we are really lucky, as someone suggested in another thread, McCain will overcompensate and spend the entire time comically and creepily attempting to make eye contact with Obama (think Al Gore walking across the stage to stand next to Bush, and Bush looking at him as if to think “WTF are you doing?”).

This should be terrifying for the McCain campaign for two reasons. First, the base will not understand it. To them, a sneering, contemptuous jerk is a feature, not a bug. When they try to tone down McCain, it will turn off the diehards. Look at the reaction of the base to Palin’s RNC speech- they LOVED that she was, for all intents and purposes, nothing but an asshole the entire speech. They loved the “zingers” that were written for her. The rest of the country recoiled in horror, and Obama raised ten million the next 48 hours.

Second, they have spent the last few months angrily lashing out at the media, and these were the folks who used to love McCain. The campaign no longer allows McCain to talk to the media, and the Straight Talk Express is the “No Talk” Express these days. So for the bobbleheads that will be pushing the new narrative of the mean old McCain, the contrast is real. It wasn’t just the snarling you and I saw on tv. It was the contrast from the nice, friendly, have some BBQ here are your donuts McCain to the new one. They used to know him as their friend, now he is a jerk- the change to them is more dramatic than it is to us, and as such, the mean McCain narrative will be easier for them to adopt and pass along.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=11439

1114 KatieLou Nicely summed up KatieLou. That might be why there were different reads on the debate. McCain supporters saw what they liked.

Yes, David, but Ann does them so well. She’s the most accurate of them all.
What’s the matter with you, Gouldie, havn’t you been reading the blogs Nate Silver has been posting lately? He reckons Selzer is red hot while Raspo is doodley-squat. Do the math, old son 🙂

I watched the full debate last night and it was a no-brianer. Obama was comfortable, calm, and measured while McCain was visibly defensive and uncomfortable. No dramas from either candidate and no slam dunks – but the thing that remain in my memory was the feeling that McCain felt a sense of annoyance at having to go though the motions with that young upstart, and at the same time knowing that the young upstart could actually take away his last shot at validating himself and his own life story.

I reckon this guy has been reading our blog. Snap!

If there was a winner in the first presidential debate it would have to be Barack Obama, but only because he managed to get in a couple of punches on John McCain without looking like he was picking on Granddad.
McCain tried to counterpunch, but it was clear he needed more prep. Now we know why McCain wanted the debate delayed. He wasn’t ready.

And did you notice McCain’s body language? I don’t think he made eye contact with Obama once.

If Republicans had any sense, they would be looking for a way to delay Sarah Palin from her upcoming debate with Joe Biden.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/27/BAAG135POG.DTL&type=politics

It’s the headlines that count. If we can see this online so can the Yanks.

Cool Obama wins debate on points.

Barack Obama narrowly won the first presidential debate of the election by holding his own against his veteran opponent — and John McCain may have lost just by showing up.

The Republican nominee had insisted he would not take part unless Congress had resolved the impasse over the proposed $700 billion bail-out of Wall Street banks. Yet with the politicians still bickering, McCain flew to Oxford, Mississippi, to give Obama a piece of his mind.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4837692.ece

It’s a frequent criticism of Obama. I think he and his campaign team must know what they’re doing, because it’s working. McCain’s temperament is a real negative for him.

County GOP official removed for remarks.

The spokeswoman for the Republican Party in Nevada’s most populous county was removed from her post Saturday, after she said the Democratic Party made black people “dependent on the government.”

Didi Lima, the Clark County GOP communications director, also was removed from her volunteer role as a Hispanic community liaison for Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign over the remarks made earlier in the day while working at a McCain campaign booth.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10578127

Vale, Paul Newman:

Ned Lamont remembers how Newman supported him in the 2006 CT Senate race against Joey “The Rat” Lieberman.
http://firedoglake.com/2008/09/27/ned-lamont-remembers-paul-newman/

Newman’s best movie, imho, was all about character. As is this campaign.
Mentioned it onsite (over there, actually) many moons ago.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020623/REVIEWS08/206230301/1023

No failure to communicate here.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=xYqwYrbwHeM&eurl=http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Yes, Catrina, as actual debates go it was pretty ordinary, but of course it wasn’t really about debating, it was about selling themselves to seasonally switched-on independent and undecided voters, with the greatest political prize on the planet up for grabs. Obi reassured the britches off them according to the polls done immediately post debate. And those figures are yet to be factored into the national and State polls. Be surprised if The Kid doesn’t pick up 2-3 % in RasPo, Gallup, Quin-uh-pee-ack and natch, that doyenne of precision pollsters, Ann Selzer.

CBet, Board odds (fresh).
OBAMA, Barack 1.42 (firmed 20 cents this week)
MCCAIN, John 2.75 (drifted 50 cents this week)

“This sure woz the week wot dunnit for The Kid, guvnah!”

1126 Enemy Combatant
He can still build on that. This is just the beginning.
“This sure woz the week wot dunnit for The Kid, guvnah!”

On the Kentucky senate poll.

“If Lunsford is actually doing this well, its got to be because the public is so upset by the economic meltdown and may be blaming the legislative leaders,” Sabato said. “If this is true, Democrats may win a lot more seats in both the House and the Senate than people are predicting.”

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080927/NEWS0106/809270303&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

If you allow for the Mason-Dixon error factor the Repugs are in one hell of a lot of trouble.
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/search/label/pollster%20ratings

Ups and downs of presidential politics.

With such a wild week in the presidential race, it is impossible to guess what the next five may bring voters.

John McCain “suspended” his campaign and then played hard to get with the first debate. Barack Obama was chased out of the headlines, but still appeared to gain momentum. The vice presidential candidates tripped up so many times pundits couldn’t even keep up.

It’s interesting to note the one blunder Joe Biden made, David picked up on, but hasn’t made a fuss over the massive blunders of Sarah Palin.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=238791

CNN Politics.
Fact Check: Does McCain almost always agree with Bush?

The Facts:

According to an analysis by Congressional Quarterly, McCain has voted for bills favored by President Bush 90 percent of the time. The nonpartisan publication, which has analyzed voting by members of Congress since 1953, said the report took into account all legislation that Bush had taken a clear position on. It spans from the beginning of Bush’s term to Congress’s recess in August.

Verdict: True

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/26/fact-check-does-mccain-almost-always-agree-with-bush/

The bankers are already trying to strip the bailout of the protection clauses the Dems put in there for protection for taxpayers:

Now that every sign points to a speedy capitulation to the banking industry, the banks have resumed their swagger. Executives at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Edward Yingling, of the American Bankers Association, have begun an insidious campaign to strip the bailout of any protections for the very taxpayers this bailout defrauds.

Democrats in the House tacked H.R. 5244 into the bailout, passing it by a vote of 312-112. The resolution would protect Americans from the type of predatory lending that led to the catastrophic failure of our markets…that WILL LEAD TO ANOTHER CATASTROPHIC FAILURE IF CONGRESS ALLOWS IT.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/After-Kneeling-Banks-Swag-by-Dean-Powers-080928-832.html

This is the problem with free and unregulated markets – the only focus is as much profits as possible and now with less reponsibility and risk as possible.

We will get these things along with collusion, predatory pricing and profiteering until such time as we have criminal charges, where transgressions of the law are not just a financial risk to be absorbed on balance sheets but personal risks that lead to jail.

They have shown they can be trusted, cannot self regulate and are not remorseful for the disaster they have brought or even think they have done wrong and, want the powers to go and do the same again. Manadatory 5 year jail terms for transgressions of regulations should keep operational executives honest.

Maybe they’ll find a new way, like a car accident or a plane crash. Helicopter has been done recently, although they did mean to get JJ Cale.

Gaffy@1134,
So is this the Paulson who ,along with Bernancke, is pushing for the $700 billion bailout?
“Annual Income……
2006 Henry Paulson $129,087,000 $34,900,000 total-$163,987,000
2005 Henry Paulson $600,000 $3,363,422 total- $3,963,422
2004 Henry Paulson $600,000 $11,660,000total- $12,260,000 ”
A cool $US164mil in one year alone?

Breakthrough Reached in Negotiations on Bailout.

Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative agreement early Sunday on what may become the largest financial bailout in American history, authorizing the Treasury to purchase $700 billion in troubled debt from ailing firms in an extraordinary intervention to prevent widespread economic collapse.

May need to register.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/business/28bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Will this be a “snow job” or the opening of a tin of “grubs”

DOJ to Release Long-Awaited Report on US Attorney Firings Monday:

“The only thing they would say is that the report was “very long,” Iglesias told The Public Record.
The report, the latest installment in a wide-ranging investigation by the DOJ’s Inspector General into the politicization of the agency, could very well be damaging for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his former deputy, Paul McNulty and could set the stage for criminal charges.

In an interview in August, Iglesias said he believes DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine will recommend that Attorney General Michael Mukasey appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Gonzales, McNulty and others for perjury, obstruction of justice and possibly other crimes related to the firings.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/DOJ-to-Release-Long-Awaite-by-Jason-Leopold-080926-278.html

1146 Gaffhook People can still rate that YouTube Video, click in the middle of the video it then takes you to YouTube. Give it a five star rating and save it to my favourites. This gives it a high ranking in YouTube. That means more people will get to see it. You can also put it on your blog or website. Maybe you would like to send it to your friends.

For those who missed it, the best exchange of the night, on one of the Stateside blogs
“McCain couldn’t look a black guy in the eye…
—–yeah, but this one was asking for change!”

A poll on CNN’s Website with 80,500 respondents gave Obama the victory 67% to 28%. An NBC survey, which drew 291,000 responses gave the victory to Obama 51% to 35%. Democracy Corps ran a 45-person focus group in St. Louis. The group was heavily tilted towards the Republicans, with 33% identifying as Republicans, 27% identifying as Democrats, and the rest independents. The group as a whole voted for Bush over Kerry by a 2-to-1 margin in 2004. Nevertheless, by a 38% to 27% margin, they felt that Obama won the debate.

All in all, Obama did what he had to do. He convinced a majority of the voters that he can handle foreign affairs at least as well as McCain, maybe better. All he really needed was a tie, because virtually every poll has shown that large majorities support Obama on domestic issues.

The Votemaster is chock full of good stuff for Obama. Definitely a must read. Including one for David on how young and minority voters are under polled.
http://www.electoral-vote.com

From CBS News’ Scott Conroy:

Sarah Palin told a customer at a Philadelphia restaurant on Saturday that the United States should “absolutely” launch cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the event that it becomes necessary to “stop the terrorists from coming any further in,” a comment similar to the one John McCain condemned Barack Obama for making during last night’s presidential debate.

Palin Contradicts McCain On Pakistan, Seems To Back Obama’s Position

Cheers, Froggy, liked the first one better but the recent effort had some excellent moments. Tina and the SNL writers will glom a motza of new material from the Veep nominee’s “debate”. By the time Tina’s done with her over the ensuing SNLs, Palin will be political roadkill.

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http://news.yahoo.com/comics/doonesbury;_ylt=A0WTUdZiZ99IyFwA1yADwLAF

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I have just read this op-ed piece and in it at the end is a link to remarks made by Congressman McFadden to Congress in 1934.
It is a fairly long read but after reading it there is every reason why lots of Seppo Politicians and CEO’s should be mowing lawns and taking out the garbage at Gitmo now and for quite a long period of time. They should only be released when they can relate his remarks verbatim without any notes.

The Fed has CHEATED the Government of these United States and the people of the United States out of enough money to pay the Nation’s debt. The depredations and iniquities of the Fed has cost enough money to pay the National debt several times over” stated the Honorable Louis McFadden of Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Banking and Currency Committee for more than 10 years, and he “was the best posted man on these matters in America and was in a position to speak with authority of the vast ramifications of this GIGANTIC PRIVATE CREDIT MONOPOLY.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/FED-A-Gigantic-Private-Cre-by-Gene-Cappa-080927-106.html

His remarks to congress are here:
http://www.knology.net/~bilrum/McFadden_on_Fed.htm

It’s almost like an everyday occurrence. The bastards never give up do they.

Martha Tierney, an attorney for the Colorado Democratic Party, said she obtained emails showing that Balink’s office sent a misleading flier to the Colorado College president’s office to provide students with voter-registration information and urged its circulation on campus.

The flier stated: “What this means is that if your parents still claim you on their income tax returns, and they file that return in a state other than Colorado, you are not eligible to register to vote or vote in Colorado.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/53024.html

Four major polls gave Obama 5 – 6% the day before the debate. If all the instant polls are right Obama should expect a boost in the next week, maybe more from McCain’s chicken act as well. Taking into account the under polling of youth and minority voting. Obama’s looking good.

“Why cant John McCain multi-task?”
He’s trying to deal with a multi-dimensional world in a ‘flat-liner’ /two-dimensional way.
“Barack Obama said a sensible thing the other day when John McCain announced he was suspending his presidential campaign and flying back to Washington to help secure a giant bailout of America’s financial system. Never mind that McCain seemed to have no particular ideas about how to do that—the early evidence is that he might have encouraged the GOP caucus in stalling the $700 billion deal—and that he seemed content to garner his photo op with George W. Bush at the White House. This was the second time the Republican candidate has declared he was dropping everything to focus on one problem (the first was Hurricane Gustave). Obama reasonably responded that he himself would stay on the stump. He explained his decision by remarking: “It is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.
“Thank you, Barack Obama. Though in truth, the Illinois senator was being far too generous (he’s really got to stop being so polite). It’s not going to be the American president’s job; it is his job and has been for decades. It’s just that it’s been so long since we’ve actually seen a president perform this job as he should. We seem to have forgotten that the responsibility of the person in the Oval Office is to oversee, day by day, a vast, multidimensional international system, one in which economic, security and social problems are all intertwined and must be balanced against each other. It is a mind-bogglingly complex job, the hardest task in the world. It is, in fact, much more challenging than it was even during the cold war, a period defined by an overarching bipolar conflict. And yet we have endured seven and a half years of an administration that has sought to turn this multidimensional world into “Flatland,” to invoke the classic mathematical satire by Edward Abbott, which imagined a world of just two dimensions rather than three.”
Worth a squiz.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/161002

Compass next week is doing an article on Patrick Henry College which has put fundamentalist Interns into the Whitehouse than any college has put Interns.

Thanks,Ecky,
had me a wee bit spooked!!
After all,how much of a quote is too much?
A bit like a little bit pregnant?

Yep,appreciate it ,Chris.
Not too good at the fan-dangling ‘reference/copy/paste’ acrobatics…
Certainly increases my admiration for the skills displayed by so many of you.

The only way you learn on these new fangled things, is on the run. Don’t forget to hit the “any” key. Then F13.

Chris B, even if Newsweek were gunning for this blog site, the admonition at the end of Megan’s comment ..”worth a squiz”..which means “go look at the website”… would cut the ground under any complaint!
I expect that MSM websites get much traffic as a result of citations in this and other blogs, so they would be going against their own interest in acting churlishly

Fair enough, Chris, it’s an incredibly complex issue to become involved in. Should we be leant on by parties with motives nefarious or proprietorial, we could turn it into a “Blog Minnows V Communications Corporation” cause celebre, but it would distract us from the fun and drama of main event.

My 2 cents worth is that if you want to get into the copyright issue, then maybe Cat would consider a dedicated discussion thread in the Pages section of our links.
Being afraid to post stuff here is not what we’re about. In a certain way, fear to post freely accessible information from cyberspace is reminiscent of the subservience to authority that anti-terrorist measures at airports etc. have induced in a sheepish citizenry. One smart-arse crack from a citizen to a bag searcher could have serious consequences regarding said citizen’s immediate liberty. This is in Australia, by hagiography a land of larrikins.
“Give up your civil rights and freedoms because we’re only trying to protect you” .

Three paragraphs from Newsweek posted here with a link of acknowledgement is wonderful publicity for them.

We are not afraid of these people, Chris:)

I wonder if Obama’s reluctance to get tough/angry or personal is to do with race and being careful to not invoke in racist cues in people.

TP @ 1181 et al.
IMO our boy is following the old biblical adage.. “love your enemies.. it’ll drive them crazy!”
The nearest anyone has got to laying a punch on him was in the pastor affair, when the commentariat nearly painted him as
“another uppity niggra”.
their frustration since then blew up in the absurd “lipstick pig” affair.
BO has got Biden as his attack dog, and a very nice job he’s doing. BO is the good cop in this scenario, and he’s doing a superb job.

1182 Gippslander Going by that. Biden will attack on Friday morning. But the Republicans, not Palin. Just being there, and talking will bring her undone. 😈

Obama Marvels at the ‘Crazy’ 2008 Campaign.

Barack Obama sounded a bit wistful about his long campaign for the presidency at a fundraiser today, telling a crowd of supporters, “You couldn’t have written a novel with all the crazy stuff that has happened in this election.”

“One of the wonderful things about having such an extraordinary election process is that I’ve seen all the cycles of ups and downs, twists and turns,” he told the roughly 100 donors gathered inside the Detroit Public Library before a rally here.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/09/28/obama_marvels_at_the_crazy_200.html

USA Today/Gallop Poll: Obama Did Better in First Debate.

A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night’s presidential debate say Democrat Barack Obama did a better job than Republican John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.

Obama scored even better — 52%-35% — when debate-watchers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country’s problems.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5902766&page=1

Further to 1151

From CNN’s Emily Sherman:

Sen. John McCain retracted Sarah Palin’s stance on Pakistan Sunday morning, after the Alaska governor appeared to back Sen. Barack Obama’s support for unilateral strikes inside Pakistan against terrorists.

“She would not…she understands and has stated repeatedly that we’re not going to do anything except in America’s national security interest,” McCain told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos of Palin. “In all due respect, people going around and… sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that’s—that’s a person’s position… This is a free country, but I don’t think most Americans think that that’s a definitve policy statement made by Governor Palin.”

McCain Retracts Palin’s Pakistan Comments

So hang on, so we cant count on something Palin says as being her position. She’s the VP candidate, but she can blurt out anything and its just a microphone being stuck where it shouldn’t??? This guy has no idea.

Polls looking very nice by the way. Loved the McCain winning ad- scary stuff, but should have Palin being sworn in as VP just to add to the fear!!

While I don’t wish the financial crisis on the US or the world, one positive effect is that this election is (thankfully) not being fought on values. By and large, Americans are too preoccupied with money to be bothered about values. So the questions of patriotism, for example, have dissipated. The expected attacks on Michelle Obama have so far not materialised. I think the financial crisis may have some benefit in negating some of the effect of racism as well (just some).

But given McCain is set to lose, my prediction is that he’s going to try to turn the debate towards values and character. So get set for some nastiness. Last week’s stunt didn’t work – I think the next distraction will be a whole lot more dirty. It will backfire, I think. But what is left?

Ditching Sarah Palin would be a distraction – they may well do that. But if they want to try to make the election about values, perhaps they need Palin to hang around?

Looks like Myth Busted if this story is true. Her big splurge about working against the big oil companies means that she is actually working for them. Fairly long read and it appears the gas line is not going to feed the “lower 48” but anly as far as Alberta to extract the dirty oil from the Alberta tar sands:

Fresh Hot Lies: McCain & Palin’s Pipeline to Doom

The Energy plans of the McCain/Palin Campaign are dangerous, irresponsible and destructive. The heavy oil from Alberta is the crack cocaine of oil production. If it is allowed to expand, an expansion of oil shale extraction in the United States will followed. And then the rest of the world will follow our lead and the addiction to oil will only end when an accelerating climate crisis destroys life and civilization as we know it.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Fresh-Hot-Lies-McCain–P-by-Dennis-Greenia-080928-713.html

1191 Andrew “We” keep saying how dumb the Americans are, I suspect even the most moderate can see what is going on here. But if not the comedians will soon sort them out.
Saturday Night Live
The Daily Show
The Colber Repor (the “t” is silent)
Bill Maher

Katielou – I think you are right about that. There is no doubt that McCain and the Republicans will begin dishing the dirt on Obama (and Biden) in a BIG way from now on. It’s all they have left. I noticed last night that Fox News has brought out the Ayers issue again, reporting some new evidence of “strong” ties between Ayers and Obama. The dirt is already coming… McCain will be getting more and more desperate now.

The extent to which the McCain camp is hiding Palin highlights just how terrible she is. I’m sure they appreciate that the lack of media access is not a good look. Isn’t this supposed to be the candidate that had excited and energised the Repugs??

Interesting to see the Obama camp praise Palin for her previous Alaska debates. Good work at expectations management

By Obama playing it “safe” that gives the comedians only McCain to play with. They are not going to give up an opportunity like that. It will help SNL ratings to no end. (They need it).
The comedians will have by far the biggest impact on this election, than any group of people. They are talking to the independents, swinging voters and moderates. We only need 5% of voters to change sides to make 10% of difference. (Take 5% off the Republicans and put 5% on the Democrats). That is landslide material.
Then add on your Latinos, African Americans and Youth Vote. It’s like icing on a cake. No wonder the Republicans are putting GOP on the how to vote cards instead of Republican. They can see it coming.

It certainly looking extremely bad for McCain at the moment. I do not see how he can come close to victory now. I would pretty much guarantee at this point that Obama will exceed my predictions of 298 unless something very weird happens. The Gallup poll is very interesting – a very good day for Obama fell out, but Obama still improved. Obviously, my take on the debate was not shared by the voters.

(Not that I thought that the debate would swing voters to McCain in any way – I thought it would be neutral, though.)

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