Sen. John McCain has been goading Sen. Barack Obama for months to have a townhall meeting perceiving himself as some kind of master of this style of debate.  Well, last night McCain got his shot and guess what?  Obama took the school and the town in which it’s located.  CNN conducted a poll of independent  voters watching the debate and Obama won the debate 54% to 30%.  Fox News (yes that’s right), CNN, and CBS, independent viewer polls show that Obama won the debate. By the way Sen. McCain, yes the majority of voters have heard of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Voters in this election are a pretty smart group.  They are newly engaged, and to your detriment, they are paying attention to this presidential race.  So you saying that the average voter probably don’t know what is Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, is condescending and insulting to the average American’s intelligence.

As for McCain’s claim that he wants to buy up home mortgages and renegotiate those mortgages at the ”face” value of those homes….really?  Is that why McCain’s own party tried to prevent and intimidate the citizens of Michigan affected by foreclosures from voting?   Yea…somehow it is doubtful that McCain or his party has the interest of  citizens caught up in the subprime debacle at the top of their priority list.  And by the way…this is a proposal that has already been passed by Congress and is existing law.  And guess what, Sen. Obama endorsed a similar, better idea two weeks ago and the proposal is included in the $700 billion dollar bailout package.  So McCain’s claim that it is his idea is completely false.  The a better proposal and law is already on the books and had McCain did a search on “the Google” he could have found out that information before claiming the bad idea as his own.   McCain has been in Washington for 26 years, where was all the concern or effort to help “put Americans back to work” during his 26 year tenure?  All of a sudden, now that he is running for President, McCain is a friend of the working class.  Sen. McCain is again trying to mislead the American people.  We do not trust you to do what you claim because of the history of you and your campaign misleading the public.  

As for McCain’s claim that we are sending $700 billion dollars a year to countries that do not like us very much…he repeats this false claim in most of his speeches regarding energy independence.  Factcheck.org had this to say:

“We’ve got to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don’t want us very – like us very much” ([McCain] actually used the figure three times in the debate.) He’s talking about what we spend importing oil, and he’s said the same thing at the last debate and numerous other times. At current oil prices, the correct figure is about $493 billion. About a third of that goes to Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom, which were still on the friendly side of the ledger last time we looked.

As much as the McCain campaign is trying to change the subject by personally attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s character the economy issue is not going away.   At one point yesterday the market dropped 800 points.  People do not care about William Ayers, they care about their sinking 401K.  When the McCain campaign announced last weekend that they are going to change the subject from the economy to disparaging Obama’s character, the economy responded with…not so fast.  This is typical of this campaign, let’s try and trick the American public, again, into returning a Republican to the Executive Office.  And when I say “this campaign,” I mean a continuation of the Bush campaign of 2000 because the majority of McCain’s advisers and other senior campaign officials came from that group.  Honestly, I really do not understand how anyone could vote to entrust John Sydney McCain III with the office of President of the United States.  I say that in light of McCain’s recent history of erratic reactions to crisis’ and his past judgment at critical moments in the last eight years.   McCain has admitted that he does not understand the economy and is relying on Phil Gramm (Mr. deregulator himself) for economic advice.  How any person, given the current state of our country and after suffering through the last eight years of Republican rule, can vote for the McCain-Palin ticket who is interested in advancing America’s interest abroad is beyond this writer.  McCain cannot even run his campaign.  By business standards, McCain has bankrupted his campaign twice.  Is that the person you want running the biggest corporation in the world in this economic crisis?  This writer has not seen or heard a plausible plan from the McCain campaign on how they would address the meltdown of the financial markets, reduce the deficit, or end the war in Iraq.  For those voters voting for McCain in this election…I just don’t get it.  It’s like one pundit said lasty weekend, the McCain campaign is a series of tactics with no short or long term strategy.  McCain’s plan for America is exactly the same, a series of bad tactical reactions with no long term vision.  As conservative republican columnist Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal said “[McCain and Palin] are just not big enough for the moment.”

Gov. Palin has a history of attempting to quiet speech that she disagrees with.  Back in Alaska…   (link)

Palin has acknowledged she twice raised the issue in 1996 of how books could be removed from the shelves, but said it was only a “rhetorical question” and that she did not ask for any books to be banned.

Palin’s church at the time, the Assembly of God, had been pushing for the removal a book called “Pastor I Am Gay” from local bookstores, according to the book’s author Pastor Howard Bess, of the Church of the Covenant in nearby Palmer, Alaska.

“And she was one of them,” said Bess, “this whole thing of controlling information, censorship, that’s part of the scene,” said Bess.

Can you imagine what she would attempt to do “if [she] and Senator McCain are so blessed as to be chosen to serve?”  Well, you don’t have to wait…she gave her opinion about the press this past weekend.

As we send our young men and women overseas in a war zone to fight for democracy and freedoms, including freedom of the press, we’ve really got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press, and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege. We just want truth, we want fairness, we want balance……. got to have a mutually beneficial relationship here with those fighting the freedom of the press………..and then the press, though not taking advantage and exploiting a situation, perhaps they would want to capture and abuse the privilege.

I guess Gov. Palin believes that freedom of speech and freedom of the press is a privilege not a right.  Our Founding Fathers have something to say about that and they said it in the first amendment of the Constitution.  Read it!

John McCain’s new strategy….attack Sen. Barack Obama’s character with mud whether it is true or not.  The new strategy is, according to the McCain campaign,…the continued the politics of personal destruction.  I guess Sen. McCain forgot that his campaign has been doing that for the last two months.  The McCain campaign will continue to try and distract voters from the issues, in this instance, the economy.  So instead of coming up with plausible solutions to this economic crisis, the McCain campaign strategy is to distract, distract, distract, away from the real concerns of the American people.  Voters are dealing with the realities of the present.  You know, the subprime meltdown, gas prices, education.  But the McCain campaign wants to distract away from such things and instead smear Obama with lies that were debunked during the primary.  I must say, on Sunday, the McCain surrogates did not disappoint.  From Sarah Palin at a campaign rally in California, to Nancy Pfotenhauer on CNN’s Late Edition, all attempting to slander Obama based on detestible acts engaged in by some guy almost 40 years ago.  At which time, I might add, Obama was eight years old and playing in a sand box. 

One other tactic that members of the the McCain campaign and its surrogates utilize is to overtalk their opponent in a way that prevents the opponent from exposing the fatal flaws in the majority of their claims, arguments, and positions.  All of the McCain surrogates do it.  They talk and talk trying to run out the clock on the segment in a blatant attempt to prevent the opponent from getting a word in edgewise.  Nancy Pfotenhauer does this ALOT.  Carly Fiorina also used to do it ALOT until she was silenced for saying that McCain is not qualified to run a company. 

The McCain campaign has also decided to issue attack ads against the Illinois senator.  Whether such ads are false or misleading does not matter to McCain.  As long as they attack and mislead the public about Obama’s character.  For example, the McCain campaign has an ad out that claims that Obama voted to raise taxes 94 times.  This is completely untrue and misleading to the American people.  McCain and his campaign know that these are budget resolutions or amendments that in and of themsleves could not result in higher taxes.  In fact, if we use the exact same methodology used by the McCain campaign to come up with this claim, McCain has voted to raise taxes 400 times.  They fail to mention this little tidbit in their ad.

Tim Dickenson penned a scathing article about the real John McCain in Rolling Stone this week.  Not the fictionalized, media created “maverick” John McCain, but the real John McCain and the rise to below mediocrity that he actually represents.   The article is long but it is COMPELLING and well worth the read.  It gives you all the details about John McCain’s real life and not the fairytale that he and his handlers have been spinning for years now.  Further, it gives FULL details of McCain’s ACTUAL war record as well as real insight into McCain’s true character.  A MUST READ!!  Some of the highlights are below.

The real John McCain as a member of the KEATING FIVE:

“McCain saw the political pressure on the regulators,” recalls Black. “He could have saved these widows from losing their life savings. But he did absolutely nothing.”….

McCain was ultimately given a slap on the wrist by the Senate Ethics Committee, which concluded only that he had exercised “poor judgment.” The committee never investigated Cindy’s investment with Keating.

The real John McCain, husband and father:

Walking along the grounds at Fort McNair, McCain runs into John Dramesi, an Air Force lieutenant colonel who was also imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam……

On the grounds between the two brick colleges, the chitchat between the scion of four-star admirals and the son of a prizefighter turns to their academic travels; both colleges sponsor a trip abroad for young officers to network with military and political leaders in a distant corner of the globe.

“I’m going to the Middle East,” Dramesi says. “Turkey, Kuwait, Lebanon, Iran.”

“Why are you going to the Middle East?” McCain asks, dismissively.

“It’s a place we’re probably going to have some problems,” Dramesi says.

“Why? Where are you going to, John?”

“Oh, I’m going to Rio.”

“What the hell are you going to Rio for?”

McCain, a married father of three, shrugs.

“I got a better chance of getting laid.”

The real John McCain. Both George W. Bush and John Sydney McCain III had an eerily similar life path:

At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives’ evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

The real John McCain only puts ”country first” according to Lincoln Chafee, a former GOP senator, when it doesn’t interfere with his own personal ambitions.  Chafee is said to be appalled by McCain’s readiness to “sacrifice principle for power.”

And forget all the “Country First” sloganeering, he adds. “McCain is putting himself first. He’s putting himself first in blinking neon lights.”

The real John McCain’s temperament:

McCain didn’t play well with others. Indeed, he concedes, his runty physique inspired a Napoleon complex: “My small stature motivated me to . . . fight the first kid who provoked me.”

Most of us were truly moved when Sen. Joe Biden choked up while remembering the death of his first wife and their daughter during a automobile accident many years ago.  Gov. Sarah Palin was not at all affected and without so much as an acknowlegement to Sen. Biden about his loss, Palin went into a one-minute monologue about why McCain is a so called “maverick.” One writer summed it up perfectly.

She might have undone whatever good will she earned with her “aw, shucks” Wasilla hockey mom ways, though, when she utterly failed to react after Biden choked up while discussing the death of his first wife and their daughter.

Palin’s response was ice cold: “People aren’t looking for more of the same. They are looking for change. And John McCain has been the consummate maverick in the Senate over all these years.”

The New York Times  Editorial Board got it right.

But Ms. Palin never really got beyond her talking points in 90 minutes, mostly repeating clichés and tired attack lines and energetically refusing to answer far too many questions.

Senator Biden did well, avoiding one of his own infamous gaffes, while showing a clear grasp of the big picture and the details. He left Ms. Palin way behind on most issues, especially foreign policy and national security, where she just seemed lost. It was in those moments that her lack of experience — two terms as mayor of a tiny Anchorage suburb and less than two years as governor — was most painfully evident.

To be clear, Palin cleared the very low bar of verbalizing at least one coherent thought during the ninety-minute debate.  However, the bar is considerably higher to be the vice president of the most powerful nation in the free world. As a matter of a fact, Palin appeared as if she was running for prom queen with the eye-winking, the shout-outs to third graders, and refusing to answer pressing questions concerning the anxieties and doubts of the American people regarding the economy and foreign policy.  Instead, resorting back to the tired cliches and talking points of the McCain campaign.  The best part was when she praised Bill Cheney for his handling of the vice presidency.   In fact, Palin ultimately asserted that the Cheney model for the vice presidential position is what she aspires to use as her guide “if she and McCain are so blessed as to be” voted into office.  Hopefully, the American people will be so blessed as to NOT have to suffer through a McCain-Palin administration.

Sen. John McCain has closed up shop in Michigan.  The Arizona senator has virtually conceded the state and its 17 electoral votes to Sen. Barack Obama.  Michigan was a key state to the McCain strategy of trying to pick off a democratic state in order to succeed on November 4th.  It is becoming increasingly more difficult for McCain to carve out a path of victory on Nov 4th..  There are not many options at this point. Polls show that Obama has a double digit lead in the state.  Read full story.

John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play.

McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush.

A McCain aide confirmed the move and chalked it up to the state’s Democratic tilt and the resources Obama had put in place there.

“It was always a long shot for us to win,” said the aide.  

McCain will now turn his attention to bolstering his defenses in Ohio and Florida while putting more resources into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and the second congressional district of Maine, where there is a sole electoral vote available.  

Most of us are on pins and needles in anticipation of tonight’s vice presidential debate featuring Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Sarah Palin.  Most think that Biden will wipe the floor with Palin and under normal circumstances that may be true.  However, these are not normal circumstances. The McCain fought and fought hard to get a more structured format where Palin’s lack of knowlege will not be as obvious.  Also, Palin is a skilled debater,  she did win the Alaskan gubernatorial debate against a seasoned democratic opponent.  Further, Palin has been practicing night and day almost since she was selected as McCain’s running mate.  Palin is also a quick study.  Lastly, Palin has a folksy and affable personality where she can deliver her out-of-the-mainstream views in an ingratiating or affecting way.  Her delivery is less jarring and less offensive than most right wing candidates.  Sen. Biden really needs to be respectful but clear as to why this woman is unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.  Most of all, Biden needs to be succinct.  The McCain campaign has already sent out the talking points regarding Gwen Ifill’s book that has not been released yet claiming that the 27 year veteran journalist cannot be objective.  Hopefully, such talking points will not deter Ifill from asking both candidates the tough questions.  We don’t think that it will.  Besides, Ifill also moderating the vice presidential debates in 2004….she is a seasoned professional whose credentials and objectivity is beyond reproach.  Interesting as to why the right wing would be questioning her objectivity at this particular time.  We are sure that the Biden and Ifill are sexist talking points are already drafted for Friday’s news cycle.  Gwen Ifill will do her job and do her job well the same as always.  Give me a freakin break!

Last night the Senate passed the Bailout bill 74-25.  Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Joe Biden voted for the bailout rescue plan.  In total, 39 democrats, 34 Republicans, and 1 independent (Lieberman) voted in support of the Bill.  There will be a Main Street benefit by way of the defrosting of credit.  The Bill allegedly will significantly increase the availability of credit and prevent a deep recession.  In the last few weeks, consumers have noticed that it is more difficult to get credit for home loans, car loans, and other types of consumer and small business loans because banks are not lending.  Until banks are able recapitalize, the industry is holding on tight to the credit strings.  The hope is that the Bill will provide much needed stability to the financial markets.  When businesses cannot get loans to make payroll, employees lose their jobs or don’t get paid.  Consumers then stop spending money and consumer buying slows down resulting in states bringing in lower tax revenues.  The broader economy is then impacted.  It’s all interconnected.  One good thing and per Sen. Obama’s suggestion, the bill will raise the FDIC insured amount from $100,000 to $250,000.  If there was more time perhaps a better bill could be crafted but given the alleged urgency of the situation it is the best available remedy of the moment.  Today Congress will be whipping votes and there should be a second vote in the House of Representatives on Friday.

The question being asked by a few bloggers is whether Tom Brokaw of Meet the Press will be objective when it comes to his moderating duties in the second presidential debate on October 7th.   The second debate will be a townhall meeting format but apparently the moderator will have some power to determine the direction of the meeting.  Many are suggesting that Mr. Brokaw may attempt to sabotage Sen. Obama after viewing Meet the Press last Sunday.  I guess the townhall meeeting could be stacked with McCain supporters.  Further, Media Matters points out Brokaw’s blatant bias for Sen. McCain.   The New York Times says that Brokaw is some sort of special “liason” for the McCain campaign. You be the judge.  The following was sent out by MoveOn.org:

Sunday on Meet The Press, Tom Brokaw moderated a debate between McCain strategist Steve Schmidt and Obama strategist David Axelrod on topics ranging from Iraq to the Wall Street bailout. At the end, Tom Brokaw did something strange. He opted to give himself the last word and told the audience:

In fairness to everybody here, I’m just going to end on one note. And that is that we continue to poll on who’s best equipped to be Commander in Chief, and John McCain continues to lead in that category despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Gentlemen, thank you very much.

1.We checked, and the latest NBC poll actually has no question about Commander in Chief.2 We contacted NBC about this, and it turns out Brokaw was referring to a poll taken weeks ago–right after the Republican convention and well before Friday’s big national security debate.3 And in each of NBC’s last two polls, Americans chose Obama over McCain.

Can you email Tom Brokaw today? Let him know that this election is very close, and we need journalists to be responsible. Giving himself the last word in the debate, and citing an outdated poll number as if it was current, was a mistake. As a responsible journalist, he should apologize for both.

Here’s where to contact him:
Tom Brokaw, Meet The Press feedback form: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/…

Then, help us track our progress by reporting your comment here:
http://pol.moveon.org/…

Barack Obama was widely praised after Friday’s presidential debate for his knowledge of foreign affairs and national security. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos summed up the consensus this way: “Overall, bottom line, the winner is Barack Obama…his number one goal was to show that he belonged on that stage…he could hold his own on national security, he did that tonight, he gets the win.”

Every major poll after that debate showed Americans thought Obama won–and a CNN poll said voters trusted Obama over McCain to handle Iraq.  Plus, three major polls released on Sunday showed Americans choosing Obama over McCain.

So Brokaw’s insertion at the end of the debate wasn’t just random–it painted an inaccurate picture of the race for voters. Can you contact Brokaw today?

Thanks for all you do.

The following is a story from an Ohio resident who convinced a racist to vote for Sen. Barack Obama for president.  An African-American woman wearing an Obama t-shirt was approached by a Caucasian elderly woman while sitting on a bench in a state park in Ohio.  The woman then asked the African-American woman if she was voting for Obama and the AA woman answered in the affirmative.  The conversation then went as follows:

(caucasian woman): “It’s nothing against you,” she said, “but I think we’re not ready for a black President.”

(AA woman): I kept it light. “I’m ready!” I joked.  Then I said, “Barack Obama is so much more than ‘just our first black President.’” Then I went on to talk to her about Obama’s policies in general terms and to generally try to get her to think of him as something other than “a black president.”

She kind of hemmed and hawed. Finally I said, “If you were to suddenly fall into this lake (the running/walking trail is around a lake) and need mouth-to-mouth, and there was me, who knows CPR, and a white person who didn’t, would you rather me not give you mouth-to-mouth because I am black?”  

She thought about it for a really long minute! Yes, folks, she thought about it! Let me pause to say this woman must be REALLY racist if she could tell me, an African American Obama supporter, she wasn’t comfortable with a black man being President.

Finally she said, “I’d want you to save me. No doubt about it.”  

So then I said, “Well, our country is just like you would be if you’d fallen into the lake. It is in dire straights. And the only person who can save it, happens to be the black guy.  Do we really want to watch our entire future be jeopardized because of something like this?”

“I never thought about it like that,” she said.  ”That puts a new spin on it.”

Then she said, “But my friends will all think I have gone nuts if I tell them I will vote for Obama.”

I told her, “You don’t have to tell them who you are voting for. It’s like when you pray for people (I got the feeling she was also religious) you don’t have to tell people what prayer you’ve said on their behalf–but they will still get all the benefit.  If Obama wins,” I told her, “you will have made their lives better, whether they realize it or not.”

“You’re telling me to lie?” she said jokingly.

“Yep,” I said. “If that’s what is going to get you to vote for Obama!”

“You’re smart,” she said. “I think you just converted me.”

“I’m not as smart as Obama!” I told her.

For all the phonebankers and canvassers who have experienced this situation more than once.