The GOP has decided to work half days until further notice because they are upset with Democrats for passing health care reform.  So health care reform is now the law of the land and the Republican party in an act of political vengeance has decided to double down on its obstruction. Sen. John McCain even announced yesterday that Democrats should not expect any cooperation from Republican members for the rest of the year.  So Arizonans should not expect anything from McCain in exchange for that $200K salary that they are paying him.  This is truly rediculous.  Regardless of which party you’re in last I checked we do not pay politicians to holiday in a time of such economic strife.  If John McCain worked for a corporation he would be fired immediately.  This is not the playground.  People’s lives are at stake.   You lost the election, GET OVER IT!!!  Elections have consequences which means the GOP agenda will not be implemented when you have a Democratic majority.  You were hired to do the people’s business now do your job.  You’re 73 years old for goodness sake!

Reconciliation Fixes Update:

At around 3am this morning due to a couple of hiccups with the Byrd Rule the Parliamentarian struck a couple of non substantive technical provisions having to do with the education portion of the bill requiring the bill to go back to the House of Representatives for another vote.  The changes are minor and technical so the Reconciliation bill should have no problems getting through the House again.  This is pretty much a done deal.

Neither [flaw] is of any substance, but the Senate parliamentarian informed Democratic leaders that both are in violation of the Byrd Rule.

One is related to Pell Grants and the other makes small technical corrections. Why they’re in violation of the Byrd Rule doesn’t matter; the upshot is that Republicans will succeed in at least slightly altering the legislation, which means that the House is once again required to vote on it…

After the Parliamentarian Alan Frumin had advised the leadership of his ruling, the Democratic and Republican leaders huddled on the Senate floor and agreed to adjourn until 9:45 a.m…

“The Parliamentarian struck two minor provisions tonight from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, but this bill’s passage in the Senate is still a big win for the American people. These changes do not impact the reforms to the student loan programs and the important investments in education. We are confident the House will quickly pass the bill with these minor changes,” said a statement from Kate Cyrul, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

This is to whom presidential candidate  and now senate candidate John McCain was willing to entrust our country:

Palin had “substantial deficiencies,” the authors report, and her “grasp of rudimentary facts and concepts was minimal.” Those deficiencies became apparent on Sept. 10, when she was getting ready to fly back to Alaska to see her son, Track, depart for Iraq, the authors report. She was also preparing for her interview with ABC’s Charlie Gibson.

“Asked who attacked America on 9/11, she suggested several times that it was Saddam Hussein. Asked to identify the enemy that her son would be fighting in Iraq, she drew a blank. (Palin’s horrified advisers provided her with scripted replies, which she memorized.) Later, on the plane, Palin said to her team, ‘I wish I’d paid more attention to this stuff.” 

From the book  Game Change

When McCain was asked about Sarah Palin’s deficiencies and about his vetting process he answered that he doesn’t know anything about his vice presidential vetting process nor does he care. 

Hmmmm…America definitely dodged a bullet in November 2008.  Arizona has another opportunity to do so in 2010.

A couple of months ago Sen. John McCain begrudgingly participated in a Hispanic business round table where he was reported by those who attended to be snarly and grudge holding.  So much so that when he was asked about immigration reform McCain angrily responded “you people made your choice” referring to the 2008 presidential election.  Still angry much??  It may be that McCain took a certain amount of satisfaction in not voting for Justice Sotomayor to be confirmed given that  Hispanics predominately supported Barack Obama for President.  McCain has said “elections have consequences.”  One of the consequences is that the President should be given the utmost deference with respect to his Supreme Court nominees.  McCain seemed to be following his professed “elections have consequences” policy when he voted in support of  President Clinton’s nominee Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  As for yesterday’s vote against Sotomayor, given McCain’s history and temperament it would not be surprising to learn that this was intended as a jab to the Hispanic community.  However, and in fairness, McCain also voted against Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. 

What is perplexing is that McCain is up for a pretty tough re-election campaign in Arizona which has a very large Hispanic population.  One would think that he would try to curry favor within the Hispanic community rather than risk its wrath.

The alternative……I can’t even imagine……

DAVID GREGORY: Let’s get right to it on Iran. How does the U.S. deal with an emboldened Iranian President Ahmadinejad?

SENATOR JOHN McCAIN: Well, we lead; we condemn the sham, corrupt election. We do what we have done throughout the Cold War and afterwards, we speak up for the people of Tehran and Iran and all the cities all over that country who have been deprived of one of their fundamental rights. We speak out forcefully, and we make sure that the world knows that America leads — and including increased funding for part of the Farda, Iranian free radio.

Wow…how can someone be so off the mark and out of step with not only the nation but with his constituents. 

John McCain sounds angry and frustrated that, despite the risks he took in pushing immigration reform, Hispanic voters flocked to Democrat Barack Obama in last year’s presidential contest. McCain’s raw emotions burst forth recently as he heatedly told Hispanic business leaders that they should now look to Obama, not him, to take the lead on immigration.

The meeting in the Capitol’s Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona, John Thune of South Dakota, and Mel Martinez of Florida to reach out to Hispanics. But two people who attended the session say they were taken aback by McCain’s anger.

What began as a collegial airing of views abruptly changed when McCain spoke about immigration, according to these sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Anonymity was also requested by a third source, who was not at the meeting but was told, independently of the other two, that McCain had displayed his notorious temper.

“He was angry,” one source said. “He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn’t even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset.”

McCain’s message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama’s pace on the issue. “He threw out [the words] ‘You people — you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,’ ” the source said. “It was almost as if [he was saying] ‘You’re cut off!’ We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that.”  READ THE REST OF STORY HERE

The McCain campaign has spent $150,000 in the last three months on Sarah Palin’s makeup and wardrobe.  My question is…didn’t Sen. John McCain opt in for public financing?  You remember…the 84.1 million federal funds that McCain received to use between the Republican National Convention and the General Election.  Therefore, is the$150,000 dollars that McCain used for “pantsuits and blouses” public funds?  Hmmm?  The American economy is teetering on a recession and McCain uses the funds of hardworking Americans, voluntary or involuntary, to fund Sarah Palin’s a new and OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive wardrobe????  I would be very interested to know where those shopping spree funds came from, whether it was from funds raised by the McCain campaign, or are they from the public funds that McCain is using to finance his campaign?  This ladies and gentlemen is why Sen. John Mccain is so woefully out of touch with your average American.  This is also why he should not be in charge of America’s purse strings.  A month ago Cindy McCain was reported to have worn a $300, 000 outfit during the Republican National Convention. Yet McCain says that he identifies more with “Joe the plumber,” whose name isn’t Joe and who is not a real plumber, than Obama.  A bit like the fraud that the McCain campaign is trying to perpetrate on the American people.  The McCain campaign is pushing Gov. Sarah Palin as “Jill Sixpack” and the average woman but I do not know any “Jill Sixpack” who spends $150,000 in three months on clothing.  I guess that’s just how the McCains and the Palins roll.

Wow….more Republicans fall out of line after being frightened away from McCain and his campaign.  RedState co-founder Joshua Trevino wrote on his blog yesterday that he just could not bring himself to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket.  And rather than keep this treachery to himself, Trevino decided to confess for all his fellow republicans to see.  His fellow republicans in Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, and all the other battleground states.  This suggests to this observer that perhaps Trevino is saying that, in his eyes, McCain-Palin is not equipped for the task of leading the nation.   See article.

In the end, I couldn’t do it. My California ballot arrived in the mail today, and I opened it fully intending to vote for John McCain. I filled out the state propositions first — yes on 8, no on everything proposing a new bond or new spending — then the local offices, straight Republican excepting Kevin Johnson for (nonpartisan) Sacramento mayor. Finally, the vote for President of the United States: an academic exercise in California, where Barack Obama will surely win by a crushing margin. But good citizenship demands voting as if it matters. Do I believe in John McCain? Not as much as I used to. Do I believe in Sarah Palin? Despite my early enthusiasm for her, now not at all. Do I believe in the national Republican Party? Not in the slightest — even though I see no meaningful alternative to it. So, my choice for President in 2008, scrawled in my ballot as an act of futile protest, is Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. If nothing else, I am confident this is the first of several votes I will cast for him in years to come.

There is open mutiny in the GOP regarding John McCain and his campaign.  William Kristol, GOP conservative columnist, said this weekend on Fox News Sunday that McCain is running a “stupid” and “pathetic” campaign.  Kristol went on to say that the campaign has no strategy and they are flailing around with absolutely direction.  Kristol further opined that the McCain campaign does things that don’t work and they keep on doing them.  The campaign and it’s candidate are giving conflicting messages to put it mildly.  The entire operation is in complete disarray.  This is a blinding bright light peaking into what a McCain administration would look like and how McCain would would lead it.  Complete chaos.  Do you really think that McCain is capable of running this country given the state of of his campaign?  The McCain campaign strategy is a series of reactions with no long term plan. The Arizona senator has proven this by not bothering to put together a transition team, having no economic plan, having no exit strategy for Iraq, and on, and on.  McCain strategic plan for winning this election…..hope for a national security emergency to pop up at the last minute.  However, even if such an emergency did happen, McCain has showed that he is the worst candidate to handle it.  In both debates, Sen. Barack Obama has demonstrated leadership and a calm level headininess that we expect from our leader in a national security crisis.  McCain’s reputation as a warmonger and his demonstrated tendency to overreact and respond in an excitable and reactionary way shows that he is more likely, in a national security emergency, to make the situation much worse.  The senator from Arizona has no vision for putting America back on track. 

American Research Group has just released its West Virginia poll and Sen. Barack Obama is ahead 50% to 42%.  West Virginians were asked the following question:

If the general election were being held today between John McCain for president and Sarah Palin for vice president, the Republicans, and Barack Obama for president and Joe Biden for vice president, the Democrats, for whom would you vote – McCain and Palin, Obama and Biden (names rotated), or someone else?

A pool of 600 likely voters said that they would vote for Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden to be the next president and vice president of the United States of America.  This is a bleak sign for Sen. John McCain.  Bush carried West Virginia both in 2000 and 2004.  If McCain is eight points behind in West Virginia, the paths to victory are dwindling even further for the Arizona senator.

Our economy is in horrendous shape and Sen. John McCain thinks that the American people haven’t noticed?  Yesterday, the dow plunged almost 700 points, the NASDAQ dropped 95 points, ands the S&P dropped 75 points, but what is the McCain campaign focused on?  Baseless inflammatory accusations against Sen. Barack Obama.  Where is your plan Sen. McCain?  Where is your plan to fix the economy?  Inciting right-wing lunatics into making violent threats against your opponent is not a plan. I t is however, a desperate, pathetic attempt to win at any cost.  People are worried about their job, their home, their retirement account, their savings account, and the fact that McCain thinks that he can distract voters with insidious nonsense rather than offering real solutions, is insulting to the average voter’s intelligence. 

I guess that we should not be surprised by McCain or the Republican party when it comes to the level of distraction in which they will engage in order to steal this election.  The swift boatee has now become the swift boater.   The fact that the McCain is banking on a not so silent whisper campaign of racism as it’s primary campaign strategy is dishonorable and pathetic.  It also speaks to the erratic, ridiculous, and spasmodic  nature of the Arizona senator’s managing style.  For example, lets discuss the transition plans of both candidates shall we?  McCain’s transition team is nonexistent…McCain has decided not to worry about such things now because he doesn’t want to jinx it.  Yes, that is actually his true reason and spoken like a true gambler I might add.  This is unprecedented.  No primary candidate in history has ever not had an elaborate and intricate plan of transition into the White House for when the current occupant exit.  Why…because the new occupant has to hit the ground running and will not have time to engage in the very detailed vetting process of making appointments, staffing key positions, developing policy positions, etc.  Obama on the other hand has developed an elaborate network that is staffed with dozens of key people with very impressive resumes to help prepare for his possible move to the White House in January 2009.   It has never been more critical that the transition from one administration to the next is as seamless as possible given the current state of our nation’s affairs.  I guess McCain’s plan is to just wing it.

Finally, this is a time that we as a people need to come together and unify the country to try and navigate our way out of our current economic adversity.  However, McCain and his campaign has decided that divisiveness and winning at all cost is much more important.  Apparently, the current state of our nation in crisis is a distant last when it comes to the unbridled desires of John McCain.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is offensive. 

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.”

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.”

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.  

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.

Last Thursday Sen. John McCain dropped everything to come to Washington DC to solve the Wall Street meltdown.  The Arizona senator cancelled his appearance on David Letterman, appeared on CBS, suspended his campaign, and immediately came to Capitol Hill for a meeting with President Bush.  Then on Sunday McCain and his senior campaign manager took full credit for the bipartisan agreement that came about on Sunday evening.  McCain patted himself on the back for bringing House Republicans to the negotiation table.  Leadership.  Monday the Republicans voted the bill down.  Why?  Because their feelings were hurt.  Give me a break.  These people were elected to be stewards of the American economy as well as the American public as a whole.  You do not abdicate from that fundamental responsibility because your feelings got hurt.  It appears that Republicans have put their interest in being re-elected above the interest of the American people.  If John McCain, as an aspiring official leader of the republican party, cannot even unify his own party for the benefit of  the nation, what kind of leader will he be in the White House?  By the way, where is the current leader…..President Bush?  Why was he unable to rally his party behind this bill that he claims is essential to stabilize our financial markets?  This is President Bush’s proposal yet his own party will not support it. 

It is John McCain and the House Republicans (Far, far, right republicans or conservatives) who are trying to destroy the bailout deal that was on its way to being solidified Thursday afternoon.  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said as much  yesterday:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “We’re not the ones trying to blow this up; it’s the House Republicans.”

“I know, I know,” Paulson replied.

Until McCain air-dropped down onto Capitol Hill, after an almost six month absence, and caused a break down of the negotiations, Congress was on its way to sealing the deal.  The fundamentals of the deal had been agreed upon and both sides were on their way to a developing consensus.  Then McCain showed up.  A blind man can see through this very obvious and desperate attempt to resuscitate an ailing campaign that is caught in a downward spiral.  The consensus of Republicans and Democrats on th Hill is that McCain severely disrupted the negotiation process by dropping in and injecting presidential politics and partisanship into an almost completed bipartisan effort.  The Arizona senator did not propose an alternative plan, McCain came to DC to cause chaos for the sake of causing chaos.  He was silent almost the entire time during the meeting with Bush.  No offering of solutions or even possibilities.  But it is essential that he be on Capitol Hill at this time (snark). 

House Republicans, consistent with McCain’s belief and tacit support, propose that the bailout be funded through private money.  They also propose a suspension  of  “mark-to-market regulatory rules for long-term assets.”  More deregulation!! Seriously!  The proposal has already been rejected as not feasible by Secretary Paulson, a member of the Republican party by the way.  Free-market, free-market, free-market, free of all government regulation was McCain’s public mantra before last week.  The proposal by the House Republicans is a completely ridiculous non-starter and an obvious ploy by House Republicans to help McCain with his excuse not to show up at the debate tonight and face the American people.  Such Republicans claim that Paulson’s plan “fundamentally alters the nation’s free-market system in that it broadly socializes firms’ money-losing mortgage assets and places the U.S. on a slippery slope whereby profits will also be nationalized.”  Last week, McCain listed his conditions for a bailout plan, the bipartisan proposal included such conditions.  Apparently,  McCain looked at his falling poll numbers and changed his mind.  Lets call it what it is, McCain is gambling with the American economy in order to rehabilitate his campaign.  He is willing to gamble America’s standing in the world to win this election.  And by the way, the world is listening.  The German Minister of Economics is now saying that America will no longer be a powerful nation.  McCain has always been a gambler but now he is a gambler gambling with someone elses money.  McCain first, Country second.

Sen Barack Obama is leading Sen. John McCain 49-47 in North Carolina according to latest Rasmussen polls.  Why is this significant?  Well Rasmussen is owned by Republican pollster Scott Rasmussen.  Notice how they always conduct their polls in cahoots with Fox News.  That’s why.  Not really legitimate in terms of pollsters.  So the fact that they have Sen. Obama ahead by 2 points in the traditionally red state of North Carolina is very significant.  Last week McCain was ahead by 3 points according to Rasmussen.  Rasmussen is the last of the McCain arsenal, if they can’t even distort there surveys so McCain comes out on top, it is a scary situation for Sen. McCain.   This is the first time in eight Rasmussen polls that Obama has ever had the edge over McCain in North Carolina.  Link

McCain, the voters are paying attention.

John McCain has asked to call off the debate on Friday because he feels that his immediate presence is needed in Washington DC.  McCain has not been to work since April but now he feels that he should miss the debate to address the financial situation.  As scary as the idea, in and of itself, of McCain being the person handling the economic turmoil that our financial industry finds itself in, McCain makes this decision at a time when we the voters need to hear his plan for getting us out of this mess.  Attempting to postpone the debate makes him appear unprepared, desperate, and unable to handle more than one thing at a time.  Hey wait…turns out that McCain isn’t prepared.  Link

The debate on Friday was to focus on Mr. McCain’s perceived strength, foreign policy. Mr. McCain had not planned to devote large blocks of time to debate practice as did Mr. Obama, who was holing up with a tight circle of advisers at a hotel in Clearwater, Fla., on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to prepare. Mr. McCain had a preparatory session on Wednesday afternoon at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, but advisers said it had been interrupted by his decision, announced immediately afterward, to suspend his campaign 

For the record, though McCain claims that his suggestion is an effort to rise above politics, his decision to delay the debate could not be more political.  The polls came out yesterday showing Sen. Obama with a growing lead and McCain and his campaign panicked.  Obama is within four points of McCain in West Virginia!!!!!!  West Virginia is solid red country!!!  They realized that Sen. Obama has the wind at his back and the McCain campaign are trying to turn off the fan with a political stunt because they can’t do so with a good economic plan (they don’t have one).   Not only does McCain think that the current situation warrants a delay of his debate but warrants a canceling of the vice presidential debate.  Seriously?????  Do they really think that the American people are going to put Palin in the White House without hearing her debate and speak in a non-McCain staged environment.  McCain does not sit on any of the relevant committees that are currently in deep negotiations.  Several Congressmen have come out and said that McCain’s presence would actually hurt the process.   The crisis began a week ago..you remember……when McCain said that “the fundamentals of our economy is strong.”  Why didn’t McCain cancel the debate at that time?  McCain appears frantic and erratic……he does not appear to be the steady leader we expect of a future President.   If we had a debate in 1934 during D-Day we think that McCain can make his way down to Ole Miss without the the nation falling into a vortex.  You need to be able to multitask as the leader of the free world.  What’s next…..should we suspend the election until McCain catches up?  The main stream media has rejected McCain’s latest ploy as pure politics. 

It was stated best in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:

Last we checked, the President of the United States was still George W. Bush, the Secretary of the Treasury was still Henry Paulson, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve was still Ben Bernanke, and Congress still had 533 members not running for President who are at least nominally competent to debate and pass legislation.

So count us as mystified by Senator John McCain’s decision yesterday to suspend his campaign and call for a postponement in Friday’s first Presidential debate so that he and Barack Obama can work out a consensus bill to stabilize the financial system. This is supposed to be evidence of leadership?

 Washington Post

Can McCain pull this off – persuading the public to forget how he and his fellow Reagan Republicans changed the nation’s economic rules in ways that allowed Wall Street to run amok, and refocusing its attention on his decisiveness at this moment of crisis? I doubt it…….McCain’s ploy was transparent.

The Dallas Daily News

Democrats accused Mr. McCain of pulling a stunt to halt a slide in the polls. They also tweaked him for declaring the economic situation so dire it requires suspension of his campaign, a week after he declared the fundamentals of the economy are sound.

Some independent analysts agreed. “It is a stunt. It is a ploy,” said David S. Birdsell, dean of the school of public affairs at Baruch College in New York, an expert on presidential debates.

He called it a “very high-risk strategy” for Mr. McCain to take responsibility for brokering a solution to the economic crisis. “He’s not president yet,” Dr. Birdsell said, adding that pulling out of a debate is unprecedented. “That notion that we take one of the most sacred obligations and rituals of American politics and suspend it because there’s an urgent national question is highly problematic.”

Rocky Mountain News (CO):

If Winston Churchill could leave London in December 1941 and travel to America to address a joint session of Congress even as British troops in the Far East were reeling under Japanese attacks, somehow we think John McCain can make his way down to Oxford, Miss., for a debate Friday evening without imperiling the future of America. In this case, Barack Obama is right.

New York Times Editorial

We don’t know if Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama will do any good back in Washington. But Mr. McCain’s idea of postponing the Friday night debate was another wild gesture from a candidate entirely too prone to them. The nation needs to hear Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain debate this crisis and demonstrate who is ready to lead. 

This past weekend on This Week, George Will said that John McCain’s response to this financial crisis made conservatives “fearful” of McCain’s decision making process.  We have been saying this all along.  McCain tends to make knee-jerk, impetuous, impulsive decisions out the box and then tries to clean up after himself later.  This could not be more evident than when he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.  The McCain campaign has chosen to shield Palin from the press in hopes that the American people will forget that she is applying to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.  We pointed out back in May that people should look at McCain’s temperament and decide if the Arizona senator is the type of person we want making decisions for our nation in times of crisis.  Will said on Sunday that McCain “showed his personality [last] week.”  We agree.  McCain is showing us how he will lead, we should pay attention and believe him.  When you have a hard core GOP conservative like George Will raising red flags about McCain’s temperament……again, pay attention.  Will expands on his concerns below.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that “McCain untethered” — disconnected from knowledge and principle — had made a “false and deeply unfair” attack on Cox that was “unpresidential”

In any case, McCain’s smear — that Cox “betrayed the public’s trust” — is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are “corrupt” or “betray the public’s trust,” two categories that seem to be exhaustive — there are no other people.

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed? “

Sen. John McCain, at the helm every time the nation has experienced a financial crisis, now claims that he is the one that will fix this problem.  McCain was in Congress and was implicated in the Keating Five scandal or more popularly known as the savings and loan crisis.  You know, the crisis that resulted in a government bailout of  $126 billion dollars. 

McCain was also one of the Senators who helped pass the deregulation bill that caused the current crisis.  McCain had this to say about the bill’s passing on 60 Minutes last night:

Q: In 1999, you were one of the senators who helped pass deregulation of Wall Street. Do you regret that now?

McCAIN: No. I think the deregulation was probably helpful to the growth of our economy.

If you had any doubt as to how a McCain administration would handle the current financial crisis, the above quote is your answer. Incompetence and denial, denial, denial, denial.  McCain is a pure free-market ideologue.  He believes that the government should get out of the way and let the private sector regulate itself….well it is that exact ideology that is directly responsible for the greatest collapse of the financial industry since the Depression.  To put the cherry on top, the McCain campaign refuses to rule out that Phil Gramm, architect of the deregulation bill that caused this crisis and referred to Americans as a “nation of whiners,”  will be the Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration.  Also, remember McCain’s plan, until last Friday, to privatize social security?  Imagine the state the nation’s social security program had we followed McCain’s advice and invested in stock market.  Thanks for everything Senator McCain but it is really time to turn the page.