Just moments ago I discovered this news about voter supression going on in my own backyard at Virginia Tech.
http://crooksandliars.com/2008/09/09/virginia-county-issues-chilling-voter-registration-report/
I didn't go to Tech and I'm not even a football fan but as someone who has lived in Christiansburg all my life I'm offended and ashamed that such tactics could be taking place in my hometown. Or at least next door in Blacksburg. To any Tech student's out there, do not let them do this! Know your rights and cast your vote! This election needs you!
I am deeply concerned at the conduct of the McCain Campaign at their rallies this week. As I previously posted I knew there was a mudslide coming our way. But I don't think anything could have prepared me for the McCain Camps shameless pandering not only to fear but also hate.
This is not just bad politics, it's dangerous. To so carelessly and recklessly stoke the dying embers of old hate and fan the flames up just in the hope of getting a couple of extra votes not only speaks to the desperation of Republicans but to the erratic and careless behavior of the campaign that is representing them and of the candidate himself.
If McCain and his stooges keep this up, I worry that someone is going to get hurt.
I welcome any responses and thoughts on what has been happening as well as suggestions for talking with other voters and ways to break through all of this fear peddling.
We know what's coming. It is an all too familiar scenario to most Americans. We've not only seen it time and again in this election but also in 2000 and 2004. Where not only mud is slung throughout the race but the homestretch is a knee-deep slog of utter nastiness that is enough to turn almost any rational human being away from the whole process. Ugly negative campaigning is in many ways the very lifeblood of several generations of political disillusionment from which Barack Obama has inspired many Americans to come out of in the hope of something better.
The ugliest part of the whole business is that someone who is trying NOT to run a negative campaign is forced to be in the position of defending themselves not on the issues that actually matter, but against tabloid tripe and blatant untruths. As an Obama supporter I think he has, if it is truly possible to do so, fought above the fray. Showing you can fight without becoming that which you fight against.
The McCain Campaign has done nothing over the course of this election if not show with crystal clarity the willingness to sell out any scrap of real integrity in order to get another vote even if that means appealing to the lowest common denominator and peoples most base fears. Or picking a running made that is so obviously unqualified to be Vice-President just in the hopes that a female version of George W. Bush would steal the afterglow of the Democratic Convention and will be ultimately enough to fool America a third time.
Many of us, myself included thought that any election year that had Obama and McCain in the center of it would almost HAVE to be different on all levels. From Obama, I feel like it has been. From McCain ..well, that "maverick" reputation has become more laughable by the minute as his recklessness and desperation have been laid bare for all to see.
I fully expect what is going to come in the next four weeks will be the kind of thing that makes Karl Rove feel warm and fuzzy at night. I think the campaign itself and we as supporters can't allow the progress made by Obama's campaign to be compromised with a single sound-bite or ugly mudstrewn news cycle.
The smears are coming not single spies, but in battallions. Fight The Smears. Fight em' fast and fight em' hard!
http://www.fightthesmears.com/
I'm putting this up to share with other Obama supporters who watched the debate on Thursday. In my opinion I think Joe did very well and brought his A-game to it. Like Obama he didn't allow himself to be baited and when he did attack it was on his terms in order to underline the inaccurate, circular ramblings of his camera mugging opponent.
Case in point, this is a segment from Countdown with Keith Olbermann and however you may feel about him I think this segment serves to illustrates something that would be useful for the campaign to underline. Especially since Republicans feel so good about their newfound "star".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1oCTw5u0vE
To end, I'll simply say this. America likes folksy. Fair enough. But what has 8 years of folksy really done for us?
Establishing for a moment that basically crazy can happen anywhere. Politics, work, churches, wherever, no matter where you are or what group you may be involved with there is always the potential for someone to take things a little too far or just be a little too deep into it.
However, I am so sick and tired of people accusing an enthusiasm for Barack Obama as "cult-like" behavior. Or attacking the fact that he's a good speaker.
I mean at what point did inspiring the people you're trying to lead NOT become part of the American Presidental equation? Has it been so very long since the country felt good about a candidate that to see it happening makes people afraid?
Did it ever occur to anyone in the world of politics that maybe at least part of the reason why the youth vote has been so difficult to mobilize before was because you had generations of people who WANT to be proud of their country and the person in charge of leading it rather simply electing the person who is BSing us slightly less than the other guy?
Just moments ago I finished watching the speech Barack made on Faith and Politics found on this website here:
Link
I am not a Christian myself but I try to the best of my ability respect religions as I realize that they can bring a positive moral grounding and sincere upliftment to peoples lives.
I had before watching the speech a slight feeling of concern in regards to Barack being Christian. That perhaps it could result in simply a different flavor of what we have been experiencing from the current administration.
However, I think I can with honesty as much as humor say that the speech is the single best church sermon I've ever heard. My fears in this aspect were uneccessary. I felt his thoughts on the seperation of church and state balanced by not simply dismissing peoples belief systems from the floor of the debate was totally fair. In many ways the speech helped to crystalize in my own mind alot of my personal feelings on the subject that I have had trouble articulating before. I could genuinely respect the mans faith since he was not using it an excuse for the absence of questions and reason, or as an excuse for willfull ignorance.
I guess as is so often the case, Obama impressed me with his intelligence. The idea that secular and religious worlds do not have to exist exclusively of each other nor act as a wall blocking us from joining together as Americans.
Well, both as a Barack supporter and a Superman fan somehow I knew the media would start connecting the two positively or negatively. For example, this article from the Western Courier.
Do we have a messiah complex when it comes to Barack Obama or is this simply another spin by the media as they grasp for reasons to tarnish his image since they haven't dug up some other skeleton in his closet?
Personally I think the writer here is reading way to much into the crowds reactions. He does bring up some fair enough points. However, I think most people supporting Barack are people who are tired of having their intelligence doubted and insulted by government and media. We KNOW he can't solve all of our problems nor I think do we expect him to.
The realization of new ideas begins with a leadership willing to listen to and execute them. Barack is not a scientist. He can't cure global warming. But he does take it very seriously and I believe he would insure that solutions would be heard and implemented.
As far as "idol" status. Look, if anything that should tell you NOT that his supporters are crazed fanatics viewing him as the second coming. What it DOES show is that there is such a gigantic void of honesty, genuiness, and inspiration in our political landscape that when we finally come upon an example of that then yes of course Americans find it very exciting! Not because we're stupid and easily distracted. But because it's something we NEED in our leaders!
Now I leave you with this. Media, government, doubters and haters is it really so bad that there is a Presidential candidate who makes one believe we can fly?
This is my first post to any kind of political site so I think I'll use it to just introduce myself and talk a little bit about what brought me here. Hi there! My name is Matt. I work as a bookseller and I am also an artist.
While I don't consider myself a cynical person by nature, I like many of my generation and generations who have come after have been beyond disillusioned with politics and government. I've often thought that it is like a ripple effect that started with what seems like the one by one assassinations of so many great figures who advocated change in the 20th century. Factor in Vietnam and Watergate and so on. What you have is a country disillusioned. Disllusionment became cynicism, cynicism became apathy, and apathy became hopelessness. Or at the very least a feeling that "the game is fixed" and that a brighter future would remain forever out of reach. As American we had been blocked off from the promise the future could bring.
In this vaccum, corruption and greed has spread like wildfire. Now I feel with the recent administation we have reached a very critical point in our history where the price of giving up is just too high. I like many, still have doubts and suspicions but we can't ignore it all any longer. Yet, in a endless sea of what seems like overpaid used-car salesman and willfully ignorant extemeists where does one turn when they are tired of just casting a vote for the guy who isn't as bad as the other guy?
Enter Barack Obama.
When I first saw this guy I was impressed by how intelligent and reasonable he sounded comapred to ..well nearly everybody else on the scene. He was strong in his convictions, I liked his politics of course, but he did not view those with differing points of view as neccessarily dragons to be slain but as people to be worked with. ..but the idea of being truly inspired and to feel truly good about a political candidate often seemed like some sort of far off fairytale you only read about in history books and when people reflect on JFK or WW II.
When I read more about the man and finally when heard him speak, I began to understand what that was like. For the first time since I've been old enough to vote I had a genuine feeling that I was hearing a rational and inspirational leader. I don't think I'm alone in this feeling and while the media is groking for answers as to what the heck is the appeal of Barack Obama, it may very well be just that simple. So here I am. A guy who hates politics on a campaign site for a Presidental candidate. But you know, it feels good. I like having hope for the country. I think I'll stick with it, and with Barack Obama.
