Saturday, October 18, 2008
Fear of a Black Planet
In 1990, Public Enemy released Fear of a Black Planet, its follow-up to the 1988 It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, which established PE as hip hop's political conscience. The title track on Fear ends with a question:
PE's front-man, Chuck D, strikes at the heart of a division that has been sown for decades in American culture and society. Michael Omi, a leading voice on the relationship between race and popular media, has argued that "a crucial dimension of racial oppression in the United States has been the articulation of an ideology of difference, or 'otherness'. This involves defining 'us' (i.e., white Americans) in opposition to 'them.'"
I've been making the case that recent efforts — undertaken both by the McCain-Palin campaign and a growing legion of official and unofficial surrogates and supporters — to de-Americanize Barack Obama not only taps into some Americans' xenophobia, but to some white people's racism. In other words, Obama has become a triple threat: a racial, religious and national Other. Now white. Not Christian. Not American.
Political campaigns, especially at the presidential level, are bloodsports. When one campaign has a lead and a large cash advantage, moreover, the campaign that is trying to refocus attention will often resort to negative campaigning. People say they don't like it, but history shows that it's an effective technique.
I'm not one to argue that Obama should be spared this rite of passage; he wasn't during the primary and it would be foolhardy to think he should or would be now. My concern is with the theme of the negative attacks. Calling Obama inexperienced didn't work. Deriding him as a 'celebrity' didn't work. Mocking his popularity didn't work.
If there's a silver lining here, perhaps it's that the right-wing attack machine saved the best/worst for last. But this is tinsel wrapped around a hurricane; as we've seen recently, McCain and Palin may have dialed down their rhetoric, but it really doesn't matter. The meme is out there, and others have picked it up and run with it. For instance, three days ago, the Chafee County Republican Women organization featured the image below in its newsletter.
Diane Fedele, who included the image, said she had received it as part of a chain email and has apologized to anyone who was offended but insists she did not mean this to be racist. She thought it was funny, since Obama had made a crack about not looking like all the other guys on U.S. currency. She did not see watermelon, fried chicken or ribs as being specifically associated with black Americans any more than she thought it might be problematic to circulate an image that links Obama to food stamps rather than currency. Ironically, the person who claims to have created this image did so back in May as part of a satire about Republican fears that Obama was going to run a 'black' campaign. The blogger, listed only as TK, maintains a blog called Please God, No, which seems to be in the vein of The Onion and features over-the-top satire and parody pieces. The giant flap Fedele has sparked seems only to have proved TK's original point, and goes some way as a cautionary tale about quoting someone out of context.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Republican Party posted the image below to its official site last week before apparently bowing to widespread condemnation, including a sharp rebuke from Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state GOP:
County party chairman, Craig MacGlashan, who manages the web site, offered a pretty spineless defense to the Sacramento Bee: "Some people find it offensive, others do not. I cannot comment on how people interpret things." Translation: any impropriety was purely inferential, not implicit.
And while I'm the last one to defend crowd behavior at any sort of event, it seems worth including this assortment of McCain-Palin supporters in Johnstown, PA last week, not because the things they say or do is particularly represenative of, or particularly exceptional to, other things that are circulating in the air these days. Rather, I offer it as a coda to my initial point... now that the meme is out there, others will carry it regardless of what the campaign's official line is. Short of aggressive, repeated condemnations, such behavior is probably going to continue in certain situations, and as it does, it continues to promote an 'ideology of difference' that has historically worked to solidify and normalize racial antipathy in this country.
Update: In keeping with the growing frequency of these images starting to crop up, this flyer was just mailed to voters in Minneapolis and St. Paul, warning everyone about their vision of American under an Obama presidency. Unsurprisingly, the mailer seems have been sent anonymously. Not only classy, but courageous.
"Excuse us for the news
I question those accused
Why does this fear of Black from White
Influence who you choose?"
PE's front-man, Chuck D, strikes at the heart of a division that has been sown for decades in American culture and society. Michael Omi, a leading voice on the relationship between race and popular media, has argued that "a crucial dimension of racial oppression in the United States has been the articulation of an ideology of difference, or 'otherness'. This involves defining 'us' (i.e., white Americans) in opposition to 'them.'"
I've been making the case that recent efforts — undertaken both by the McCain-Palin campaign and a growing legion of official and unofficial surrogates and supporters — to de-Americanize Barack Obama not only taps into some Americans' xenophobia, but to some white people's racism. In other words, Obama has become a triple threat: a racial, religious and national Other. Now white. Not Christian. Not American.
Political campaigns, especially at the presidential level, are bloodsports. When one campaign has a lead and a large cash advantage, moreover, the campaign that is trying to refocus attention will often resort to negative campaigning. People say they don't like it, but history shows that it's an effective technique.
I'm not one to argue that Obama should be spared this rite of passage; he wasn't during the primary and it would be foolhardy to think he should or would be now. My concern is with the theme of the negative attacks. Calling Obama inexperienced didn't work. Deriding him as a 'celebrity' didn't work. Mocking his popularity didn't work.
If there's a silver lining here, perhaps it's that the right-wing attack machine saved the best/worst for last. But this is tinsel wrapped around a hurricane; as we've seen recently, McCain and Palin may have dialed down their rhetoric, but it really doesn't matter. The meme is out there, and others have picked it up and run with it. For instance, three days ago, the Chafee County Republican Women organization featured the image below in its newsletter.
Diane Fedele, who included the image, said she had received it as part of a chain email and has apologized to anyone who was offended but insists she did not mean this to be racist. She thought it was funny, since Obama had made a crack about not looking like all the other guys on U.S. currency. She did not see watermelon, fried chicken or ribs as being specifically associated with black Americans any more than she thought it might be problematic to circulate an image that links Obama to food stamps rather than currency. Ironically, the person who claims to have created this image did so back in May as part of a satire about Republican fears that Obama was going to run a 'black' campaign. The blogger, listed only as TK, maintains a blog called Please God, No, which seems to be in the vein of The Onion and features over-the-top satire and parody pieces. The giant flap Fedele has sparked seems only to have proved TK's original point, and goes some way as a cautionary tale about quoting someone out of context.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Republican Party posted the image below to its official site last week before apparently bowing to widespread condemnation, including a sharp rebuke from Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state GOP:
County party chairman, Craig MacGlashan, who manages the web site, offered a pretty spineless defense to the Sacramento Bee: "Some people find it offensive, others do not. I cannot comment on how people interpret things." Translation: any impropriety was purely inferential, not implicit.
And while I'm the last one to defend crowd behavior at any sort of event, it seems worth including this assortment of McCain-Palin supporters in Johnstown, PA last week, not because the things they say or do is particularly represenative of, or particularly exceptional to, other things that are circulating in the air these days. Rather, I offer it as a coda to my initial point... now that the meme is out there, others will carry it regardless of what the campaign's official line is. Short of aggressive, repeated condemnations, such behavior is probably going to continue in certain situations, and as it does, it continues to promote an 'ideology of difference' that has historically worked to solidify and normalize racial antipathy in this country.
Update: In keeping with the growing frequency of these images starting to crop up, this flyer was just mailed to voters in Minneapolis and St. Paul, warning everyone about their vision of American under an Obama presidency. Unsurprisingly, the mailer seems have been sent anonymously. Not only classy, but courageous.
What's worse than a 3:00 am phone call...
Despite proclaiming "I don't care about a washed-up terrorist" when answering a question about William Ayers at the final presidential debate, John McCain's campaign is now flooding battleground states with robocalls that indicate the Straight Talker™ may have been a little less than candid:
It's worth pointing out that during the 2000 Republican primary, McCain, coming off a major victory in the New Hampshire victory, seemed poised to steamroll through the crucial early primaries and lock up his party's nomination. But something happened on the way to the next primary, which was in South Carolina. A then little-known man named Karl Rove, chief campaign strategist for Texas Governor George W. Bush, flooded South Carolina with robocalls about Cindy McCain's addiction to prescription medication and implying that the McCains' adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually John McCain's illegitimate inter-racial child fathered by a black woman. Bush went on to win the SC primary and the party's nomination before ultimately winning the presidency by a final vote of 5-4 in the Supreme Court. McCain decried robocalls as hateful smear tactics. Indeed, just nine months ago his campaign manager Steve Schmidt denounced the practice. Apparently, they've changed their tune.
Sources:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/mccain-robo-calls-critical-of-obama/
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/flashback_mccain_condemned_rob.php
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/17/report-mccain-using-same_n_135699.html
Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500.
It's worth pointing out that during the 2000 Republican primary, McCain, coming off a major victory in the New Hampshire victory, seemed poised to steamroll through the crucial early primaries and lock up his party's nomination. But something happened on the way to the next primary, which was in South Carolina. A then little-known man named Karl Rove, chief campaign strategist for Texas Governor George W. Bush, flooded South Carolina with robocalls about Cindy McCain's addiction to prescription medication and implying that the McCains' adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually John McCain's illegitimate inter-racial child fathered by a black woman. Bush went on to win the SC primary and the party's nomination before ultimately winning the presidency by a final vote of 5-4 in the Supreme Court. McCain decried robocalls as hateful smear tactics. Indeed, just nine months ago his campaign manager Steve Schmidt denounced the practice. Apparently, they've changed their tune.
Sources:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/mccain-robo-calls-critical-of-obama/
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/flashback_mccain_condemned_rob.php
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/17/report-mccain-using-same_n_135699.html
New Dangers in Speaking Truth to Power
Imagine you are sitting at home minding your own business. There is a knock at the door, a presidential candidate is there, asking for your vote. In return for this privilege you ask him a question that reveals, to many in the country, a new perspective on his candidacy. For this you are subject to myriad of investigations,insults, your livelihood is threatened,and your dreams are belittled. This is the story of Joe Wurzelbacher, a regular citizen whose attentive questioning brought into question the nature of Senator Obama's tax plan.
No he doesn't yet make 250,000 dollars, he hopes too. No he doesn't have a plumbing license, he does residential work so he doesn't need one. Yes has a tax lien, but so does Obama's treasurer, a fact which has never been trumpeted with such vigor by the media as all of the little pecadillos of poor Mr.Wurzelbacher, an ordinary citizen whose only crime was to question Orthodox political thought. Here is a man who hopes to work hard, save, and achieve, slandered.
p.s. the idea that McCain's campaign needs to vet people who ask Obama tough but illuminating questions strikes me as a trifle absurd.
Also, Another American paying the price for his Heterodoxy.
Update, Quotes from the Plumber in Question:
"Hopefully they'll have me to thank for it as far as telling people to get out and find their own answers," Mr. Wurzelbacher said. "That's where I hope they go with it."
"It actually upsets me," Mr. Wurzelbacher said. "I am a plumber, and just a plumber, and here Barack Obama or John McCain, I mean these guys are going to deal with some serious issues coming up shortly. The media's worried about whether I paid my taxes, they're worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America. They really don't. I asked a question. When you can't ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me."
When the Witch Wants a Witch Hunt
Anti-Anti-Americanism — a Hollywood story:
In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (better known by the acronym HUAC) began conducting public hearings in its investigation of allegations that communists had 'taken over' the film industry. As a result of these hearings, nine screenwriters and one director — who together became known as the Hollywood Ten — were sentenced to one year i
n federal prison after being found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to recognize HUAC's authority to inquire into their political views.
Ironically, the following year, the United States Supreme Court issued what is known as the Paramount decree, which found that the Hollywood studios — the leaders of which had pressed for the HUAC hearings — constituted an illegal, vertically integrated oligopoly (or trust), in which the eight major studios colluded to fix prices, restrict access to the production, distribution and exhibition of movies in the United States. A cynical person might look at this other 'group of eight', which did not compete in a free market but instead illegally sought to 'fix' the market — certainly not a communist attitude toward business, but not exactly in the spirit of the American dream that Hollywood had grown rich from making movies about either.
HUAC also laid the groundwork for the blacklist. This list, the existence of which studio heads vigorously denied, was used for well over a decade to keep anyone even suspected of having communist sympathies from gaining employment in the entertainment industry (which had grown to include television by the early 1950s).
HUAC also paved the way for the more well-known anti-communist witch hunts conducted by Senator Joe McCar
thy in the 1950s. In short, from late 1940s through the mid-1950s, acute fears of Soviet Russia and nuclear war fueled a number of ferocious assaults on American civil liberties — including restrictions on the rights to free speech, a free press, and especially when these were employed to criticize one's own government. People who voiced dissent, or were even suspected of doing so — often people with 'funny names' like Rosenberg or Maltz or Biberman — were accused of being "un-American" by individuals, industries and government bodies who sought to define 'Americanism' as a blind and total acceptance of the status quo. America was an unimpeachable beacon of freedom, and if you thought otherwise, you were free to 'go back to Russia', to jail or to hell.
Anti-Anti-Americanism — Bringing Irony Back
In his testimony as a friendly witness before HUAC, Jack Warner began his remarks by declaring that "Ideological termites have burrowed into many American industries, organizations, and societies. Wherever they may be, I say let us dig them out and get rid of them."
Yesterday, on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Congresswoman Michelle Bachman (MN-R) became the latest to sound the "Obama isn't one of us" alarm. Only this time, she manages to trump Palin's xenophobic saber-rattling. Bachmann doesn't bother with silly innuendoes about Obama "palling around with terrorists". And she's not interested in summoning Palin's classic Everymom tone she uses when talking to rallies about Obama — "And I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America, as the greatest source for good in this world." — as if she's warning the neighborhood association that a godless pedophile was running for elementary school principal and ahead in the polls.
No. Bachmann just calls 'em like she sees 'em. "I think the people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large" and "I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views."
Partisan smears like this are ugly, but hardly unprecedented. What's truly terrifying, however, is that these remarks were used to pitch a much broader call to arms, in which Congresswoman Bachmann actually called for "The news media should do a penetrating exposé and [investigate] the views of the people in Congress and find out are they are pro-America or anti-America."
In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (better known by the acronym HUAC) began conducting public hearings in its investigation of allegations that communists had 'taken over' the film industry. As a result of these hearings, nine screenwriters and one director — who together became known as the Hollywood Ten — were sentenced to one year i
n federal prison after being found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to recognize HUAC's authority to inquire into their political views.Ironically, the following year, the United States Supreme Court issued what is known as the Paramount decree, which found that the Hollywood studios — the leaders of which had pressed for the HUAC hearings — constituted an illegal, vertically integrated oligopoly (or trust), in which the eight major studios colluded to fix prices, restrict access to the production, distribution and exhibition of movies in the United States. A cynical person might look at this other 'group of eight', which did not compete in a free market but instead illegally sought to 'fix' the market — certainly not a communist attitude toward business, but not exactly in the spirit of the American dream that Hollywood had grown rich from making movies about either.
HUAC also laid the groundwork for the blacklist. This list, the existence of which studio heads vigorously denied, was used for well over a decade to keep anyone even suspected of having communist sympathies from gaining employment in the entertainment industry (which had grown to include television by the early 1950s).
HUAC also paved the way for the more well-known anti-communist witch hunts conducted by Senator Joe McCar
thy in the 1950s. In short, from late 1940s through the mid-1950s, acute fears of Soviet Russia and nuclear war fueled a number of ferocious assaults on American civil liberties — including restrictions on the rights to free speech, a free press, and especially when these were employed to criticize one's own government. People who voiced dissent, or were even suspected of doing so — often people with 'funny names' like Rosenberg or Maltz or Biberman — were accused of being "un-American" by individuals, industries and government bodies who sought to define 'Americanism' as a blind and total acceptance of the status quo. America was an unimpeachable beacon of freedom, and if you thought otherwise, you were free to 'go back to Russia', to jail or to hell.Anti-Anti-Americanism — Bringing Irony Back
In his testimony as a friendly witness before HUAC, Jack Warner began his remarks by declaring that "Ideological termites have burrowed into many American industries, organizations, and societies. Wherever they may be, I say let us dig them out and get rid of them."
Yesterday, on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Congresswoman Michelle Bachman (MN-R) became the latest to sound the "Obama isn't one of us" alarm. Only this time, she manages to trump Palin's xenophobic saber-rattling. Bachmann doesn't bother with silly innuendoes about Obama "palling around with terrorists". And she's not interested in summoning Palin's classic Everymom tone she uses when talking to rallies about Obama — "And I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America, as the greatest source for good in this world." — as if she's warning the neighborhood association that a godless pedophile was running for elementary school principal and ahead in the polls.
No. Bachmann just calls 'em like she sees 'em. "I think the people that Barack Obama has been associating with are anti-American, by and large" and "I'm very concerned that he may have anti-American views."
Partisan smears like this are ugly, but hardly unprecedented. What's truly terrifying, however, is that these remarks were used to pitch a much broader call to arms, in which Congresswoman Bachmann actually called for "The news media should do a penetrating exposé and [investigate] the views of the people in Congress and find out are they are pro-America or anti-America."
Friday, October 17, 2008
Notes from the Debate: Facts on Colombian Free Trade
Congress, oh mighty home of the ineffectual part two, Colombian Lobbyists have put the full court press on Congress to approve a free trade agreement that would eliminate tariffs and normalize trade relations between that Andean Republic and ourselves. Businesses here look to benefit far more than their Colombian brethren as our tariffs on Colombian exports are significantly lower then Colombian’s tariffs on our exports. Congress seems to oppose the deal on human rights grounds, which would at least be a legitimate base for discussion except we are supplying the country with billions of dollars of munitions, financial aid, and we have special forces in country training their soldiers. This is akin to Congress and Senator Obama saying, “here’s large pistol and a box of explosives, Let me show you how to use them. But, no, we don’t trust you to sell us guava juice. “ If the Colombian regime is so egregious that it would be criminal to trade with them then it seems beyond belief that we should be arming them. If instead, as our strongest ally in South America and a country which has made great strides in ending its own civil war with our aid, we deny them a trading deal they want that would in the short term benefit our producers more then theirs, well, it seems a gross inconsistency bordering on madness. Oh, and naturally they have exportable oil. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friendly country close by with oil to sell now that Chavez is drifting into cloud coocoo land? Oh well… perhaps just another example of Senator Obama’s habit of voting present when the tough issues come up.
20 Minutes of Political Hilarity
It's Friday, and we all deserve a little levity to kick off the weekend. Last night, John McCain and Barack Obama attended the Alfred E. Smith memorial dinner at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. The ultra-formal, white-tie affair is known for it's "roast"-like atmosphere, where speakers on the dais saddle up to the mic and play stand-up comedian for a few minutes. I doubt McCain or Obama wrote their own material, but they both seem to enjoy laughing at their own and one another's expense for awhile. Odds are, you will too. If only the debates had been this entertaining...
Joe the Plumber: The Real Story
In the debate on Monday, McCain made Joe the Plumber from Ohio a centerpiece of his policy points, especially when he attacked Obama's tax and health care policies. Overnight, Joe was transformed into a political celebrity. However, it seems that (surprise!) McCain didn't really find out the whole deal with Joe. Like Sarah Palin, Joe Wurzelbacher was not vetted by McCain's team, and now there are some nasty truths coming out.
It turns out, Joe's not such a perfect citizen. He owes the state of Ohio $1,182.98 in personal income taxes, doesn't have a plumbing license, and he actually makes less than $250,000 a year - so he would most definitely be getting tax cuts under Obama's tax plan, contrary to what McCain repeatedly claimed in Wednesday's debate.
But McCain doesn't care, he's a maverick - who cares what skeletons are in the closets of his people? Palin abused her power in Alaska, but whatever - she's his VP choice and nothing will stop that! Joe will actually be benefitted by Obama's tax plan and not McCain's, but hey, McCain doesn't care! Joe has become the poster boy of the McCain campaign, being used as a talking point in rallies, and is the focus of a new ad that McCain has released.
As the new poster boy, Joe needs to be defended from the Democrats at all costs. When Obama's campaign and the media began calling attention to Joe's less-than-perfect record, the campaign went on the attack. Tucker Bounds, the McCain-Palin campaign spokesman, said, "It's an outrage that the Obama campaign and the media are attacking Joe the Plumber for asking a legitimate question of a Presidential candidate. Instead of answering tough questions, his campaign attacks average Americans for daring to look at the reality behind his words."
The question being to referred to was when Obama met Joe at a campaign stop, and Joe asked about his taxes, claiming he would make $250,000 a year as owner of a plumbing business. Obama responded honestly, that those making $250,000 or less would not get tax raises - which would include Joe, if he was honest in his taxes.
So to me, Bounds' defense of Joe in inexcusable. Obama and the media are only completing the vetting process that McCain utterly failed to even begin. I mean, they found Joe on the Drudge Report, and immediately made him a campaign focus! Which makes me wonder, where did McCain find Palin - in an old beauty contest magazine?
All of this only highlights a side of McCain that worries me. It seems to me that he can be impetuous, making a decision without fully examining any background information, and then sticking by it no matter what. We saw this with Palin, when it was revealed by the bloggers and mainstream media that her daughter was pregnant, and then that she was involved in a power-abuse scandal in Alaska. Then we saw that she knew nothing policy-wise, with her despicable interviews with Charles Gibson and Katie Couric. Unbelievably, McCain still stuck by her, when others began calling for her to be dropped. Kathleen Parker, a well-known conservative columnist with the National Review, wrote an article in which she called for Palin to be dropped, and then stuck by her article, defending it to Stephen Colbert on an episode of the Colbert Report. But still, McCain has made a decision, and he DOES NOT BACK DOWN! That would be showing WEAKNESS! And now, he's made a campaign hero out of a man that is in no way someone that he should be trumpeting. Come on, McCain! Show some humility, accept the fact that you made a stupid, rush decision, and drop Joe the plumber! I doubt he would mind, anyway - he never signed up to be a political celebrity. I would say drop Palin while you're at it, but it's way, way too late for that now. You're stuck with her.
Of course, if McCain had changed his mind after choosing Palin, or even Joe, well, that would be flip-flopping, right? And it's dangerous for a politician to change his mind on an issue, as we found out in 2004. A leader needs to make decisions and stick by them, NO MATTER WHAT! Like Bush once said, "I'm the decider!"
Yeah, right.
Sources: Politico.com: McCain Discovers plumber no ordinary joe
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Stephen Colbert, a known satirist, compares the candidates to shakespeare characters. What he does with McCain is the interesting thing, comparing him to blood hungry ineffective man hungry for power no matter the cost. He also enlists a Harvard scholar to help entertain the idea.
While apt to attack McCain and Palin, he quietly raises up Obama.
McCain's Got Nothing To Say
Woooo!!! 3rd and final debate last night! Of course, I was rooting for Obama, but I was really interested to see if either of them had anything, ANYTHING new to say, or if it would simply be the same old, same old. Even Bob Schieffer agreed: "By now, we've heard all the talking points, so let's try to tell the people tonight some things that they - they haven't heard." And, of course, we were both disappointed. This far close into the campaign, there's nothing else to say, it's all been said before - they're just fighting over every small difference in their policies, trying to win those few percentage points in the battleground states.
But one thing really struck me hard - McCain focused so much on attacking Obama, it just made me want to puke. On the majority of the issues, he would make an attack on Obama's policy, and then seem to ignore what Obama said to refute the attack - because he would then repeat his attack, with different wording, in his next chance to speak. Here are several examples I picked up on:
TAXES
McCain used an encounter with a plumber named Joe from Ohio to accuse Obama of planning to raise his taxes. Obama refuted the attack, saying that the plumber would most likely be making less that $250,000 a year, and so therefore would not see a tax raise. McCain then came right back at him, saying all over again that Obama would raise his taxes.
NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING
McCain made his good ol' attack about Obama's relationship to Ayers, and then threw in a new one, where the organization ACORN was "now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy" - and then having the gall to insinuate that Obama was connected to them. Bizarre claim, but Obama refuted the attacks with skill, proving there was no justification for McCain's claims. (All of this is old hat, been said before by both of them). But does McCain listen? No, of course not! He comes right back with more of the same, taking a quote from a book Ayers wrote way, WAY out of proportion and still insinuating Obama had something to do with ACORN.
HEALTH CARE
McCain goes back to his good buddy Joe the plumber, and claims that under Obama's plan, Joe would have to pay fines if he didn't take Obama's health care plan. But Obama refutes this point, saying that Joe, as a small business owner, would be exempt from the health care requirements that big businesses would have to cover. But McCain wasn't listening, because he repeated himself once more, saying that, under Obama, Joe the plumber would have to pay fines if he didn't provide the health care that Obama wanted.
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that McCain really has nothing to go on now. He's slipping in the polls, the voters trust Obama way more than McCain on economic issues, and his policies really don't look that different than Bush's. So what does he have left to run on? Nothing but (incorrect) attacks on Obama's policies, and, what's really troubling, accusations calling into question Obama's character. I believe I've said this before in an earlier post, but it seems like I need to say it again: McCain is calling out the worst in American Politics, by getting down and dirty in his attacks against Obama. We, the voters of America, need to show him and his fellow Republicans that we are not going to accept any longer the terrible and demeaning campaign methods that "elected" Bush into office. Vote Obama into office on November 4, and vote out an era of negative campaigning.
Source: CNN Transcript of the Debate
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Numbers Dont Lie
In the past couple of weeks John McCain has been falling steadily farther back behind Barack Obama in the national polls. A recent CBS/ New York Times poll revealed that Obama has now opened up a 14 point lead over McCain, which is monumental (Obama-53 McCain-39). The article featured in the New York Times suggests that McCain may in fact be the cause of his own problems. The article states that "The top two reasons cited for the change of heart are McCain's attacks on Obama and his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate" (CBS News, "Poll: Obama Opens 14-Point Lead on McCain").
This is an interesting situation for McCain, because, as it stands now, Obama's lead appears to be insurmountable. This lead seems even more daunting when it becomes apparent that the reasons for this significant gap are stemming from McCain and his vice presidential pick. These issues that are plaguing McCain in the polls are not easy, quick fixes. Unfortunately for McCain, it would appear that his attempt to skew the political narrative in his favor backfired and he is now being burned by the flame that he lit. As the saying goes, the numbers don't lie, and at this moment the numbers are telling a sad, lonely tale for McCain.
Sources:
CBS News, "Poll: Obama Opens 14-Point Lead On McCain", http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/14/opinion/polls/main4522273.shtml?source=mostpop_story, October 14, 2008
This is an interesting situation for McCain, because, as it stands now, Obama's lead appears to be insurmountable. This lead seems even more daunting when it becomes apparent that the reasons for this significant gap are stemming from McCain and his vice presidential pick. These issues that are plaguing McCain in the polls are not easy, quick fixes. Unfortunately for McCain, it would appear that his attempt to skew the political narrative in his favor backfired and he is now being burned by the flame that he lit. As the saying goes, the numbers don't lie, and at this moment the numbers are telling a sad, lonely tale for McCain.
Sources:
CBS News, "Poll: Obama Opens 14-Point Lead On McCain", http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/14/opinion/polls/main4522273.shtml?source=mostpop_story, October 14, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
We Need An End
It’s is time for war to end. Kirk von Ackermann has marked his fifth year of his disappearance as a hostage of Iraq and he is the first man to get kidnapped in the war in Iraq. With now 39 kidnaps, the terrorist have found a new tactics in harming the US. With numbers of 342 foreign hostages including American troops the war has gone up to another level. I believe it is time for the United States to take another approach in the war. With new forms of torturing we can just pray that these soldiers can once again be with their family. Going back to the presidential election McCain wants to continue the war. He needs to notice that we have no business continuing this war and we don’t need to risk having more of our soldiers captured and tortured.
“Iraq has been most dangerous for Americans, who have a better than even chance of being murdered by their captors there — an 80 percent chance if the nine still missing are factored in. Foreigners, kidnapped in much higher numbers, have had a 20 percent chance of execution. Thirty-nine Americans have been taken hostage since 2003 in Iraq, and 22 are known to have been executed”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081013/ap_on_go_ot/terrorist_hostages;_ylt=AnH4Bi.gitQqV1Cl5ZQ8A3myFz4D“Iraq
Going back to Kirk von Ackermann the American Criminal Investigators has stated that the person responsible for Ackermann kidnapped is nowhere to be found “disappeared”. How can a person disappear, does the investigators mean that they cannot track or capture the terrorist. It is scary to think that people risk their lives to defend our country, but yet we cannot find the leading cause of this war (Osama Bin Laden) or even terrorist. However, we can kill Sadam Hussein, bomb hundreds of homes of innocent people, and keep losing soldiers, for the war (oil). We were supposed to be looking/ killing Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist group of Al Qaeda instead we have dug ourselves in a bigger hole. As Barack Obama stated in the debate this war has caused many of the alliances from the United States to lose their respect and trust. The United States is getting more and more unsecure. How can we continue a war, when we don’t even know where to start or who to find?
“Iraq has been most dangerous for Americans, who have a better than even chance of being murdered by their captors there — an 80 percent chance if the nine still missing are factored in. Foreigners, kidnapped in much higher numbers, have had a 20 percent chance of execution. Thirty-nine Americans have been taken hostage since 2003 in Iraq, and 22 are known to have been executed”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081013/ap_on_go_ot/terrorist_hostages;_ylt=AnH4Bi.gitQqV1Cl5ZQ8A3myFz4D“Iraq
Going back to Kirk von Ackermann the American Criminal Investigators has stated that the person responsible for Ackermann kidnapped is nowhere to be found “disappeared”. How can a person disappear, does the investigators mean that they cannot track or capture the terrorist. It is scary to think that people risk their lives to defend our country, but yet we cannot find the leading cause of this war (Osama Bin Laden) or even terrorist. However, we can kill Sadam Hussein, bomb hundreds of homes of innocent people, and keep losing soldiers, for the war (oil). We were supposed to be looking/ killing Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist group of Al Qaeda instead we have dug ourselves in a bigger hole. As Barack Obama stated in the debate this war has caused many of the alliances from the United States to lose their respect and trust. The United States is getting more and more unsecure. How can we continue a war, when we don’t even know where to start or who to find?
Monday, October 13, 2008
Palin's mother-in-law uncertain about how she'll vote
It's a sad day when one of your close relatives won't even vote for you. In a recent article , Sarah Palin's mother-in-law shared with a reporter that she is "uncertain about how she'll vote." I'm sorry, but if your daughter-in-law is running for such a high-ranking office and you're "uncertain" about how you'll vote so close to the election, you're either amazingly ignorant, or just plain lying. Faye Palin admitted , "We (Sarah Palin) don't always agree on everything. But I respect her passion." She even goes on to snub Sarah with a laugh, "I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative." Well, that will certainly make for an awkward Thanksgiving dinner.
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