Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, is a date that will live in fame (the opposite of infamy) forever. If the election of our first African-American president didn’t stir you, if it didn’t leave you teary-eyed and proud of your country, there’s something wrong with you.
But will the election also mark a turning point in the actual substance of policy? Can Barack Obama really usher in a new era of progressive policies? Yes, he can.
Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country, and voters will punish Democrats if they move to the left. Others say that the financial and economic crisis leaves no room for action on, say, health care reform.
Let’s hope that Mr. Obama has the good sense to ignore this advice.
About the political argument: Anyone who doubts that we’ve had a major political realignment should look at what’s happened to Congress. After the 2004 election, there were many declarations that we’d entered a long-term, perhaps permanent era of Republican dominance. Since then, Democrats have won back-to-back victories, picking up at least 12 Senate seats and more than 50 House seats. They now have bigger majorities in both houses than the G.O.P. ever achieved in its 12-year reign.
Bear in mind, also, that this year’s presidential election was a clear referendum on political philosophies — and the progressive philosophy won.
Maybe the best way to highlight the importance of that fact is to contrast this year’s campaign with what happened four years ago. In 2004, President Bush concealed his real agenda. He basically ran as the nation’s defender against gay married terrorists, leaving even his supporters nonplussed when he announced, soon after the election was over, that his first priority was Social Security privatization. That wasn’t what people thought they had been voting for, and the privatization campaign quickly devolved from juggernaut to farce.
This year, however, Mr. Obama ran on a platform of guaranteed health care and tax breaks for the middle class, paid for with higher taxes on the affluent. John McCain denounced his opponent as a socialist and a “redistributor,” but America voted for him anyway. That’s a real mandate.
What about the argument that the economic crisis will make a progressive agenda unaffordable?
Well, there’s no question that fighting the crisis will cost a lot of money. Rescuing the financial system will probably require large outlays beyond the funds already disbursed. And on top of that, we badly need a program of increased government spending to support output and employment. Could next year’s federal budget deficit reach $1 trillion? Yes.
But standard textbook economics says that it’s O.K., in fact appropriate, to run temporary deficits in the face of a depressed economy. Meanwhile, one or two years of red ink, while it would add modestly to future federal interest expenses, shouldn’t stand in the way of a health care plan that, even if quickly enacted into law, probably wouldn’t take effect until 2011.
Beyond that, the response to the economic crisis is, in itself, a chance to advance the progressive agenda.
Now, the Obama administration shouldn’t emulate the Bush administration’s habit of turning anything and everything into an argument for its preferred policies. (Recession? The economy needs help — let’s cut taxes on rich people! Recovery? Tax cuts for rich people work — let’s do some more!)
But it would be fair for the new administration to point out how conservative ideology, the belief that greed is always good, helped create this crisis. What F.D.R. said in his second inaugural address — “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics” — has never rung truer.
And right now happens to be one of those times when the converse is also true, and good morals are good economics. Helping the neediest in a time of crisis, through expanded health and unemployment benefits, is the morally right thing to do; it’s also a far more effective form of economic stimulus than cutting the capital gains tax. Providing aid to beleaguered state and local governments, so that they can sustain essential public services, is important for those who depend on those services; it’s also a way to avoid job losses and limit the depth of the economy’s slump.
So a serious progressive agenda — call it a new New Deal — isn’t just economically possible, it’s exactly what the economy needs.
Updated 3:30 p.m.| Senator Barack Obama has won North Carolina, according to a New York Times analysis.
Mr. Obama’s slight lead of about .2 percentage points over Senator John McCain has expanded over the last several hours to .4 percent, prompting several news organizations to declare him the winner.
The total shows 49.9 percent for Mr. Obama to 49.5 percent for Mr. McCain.
Mr. Obama’s win here caps an extraordinary campaign in the state, which has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1976.
Early voting gave him a crucial edge when the final tallies were made. In addition, the share of the black vote increased from 2004.
Mr. Obama won early voters by 178,000 votes –and actually lost on Election Day by 165,000 votes, said Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster based in Raleigh.
“Early voting gave Obama a big advantage,” Mr. Jensen said. “It made it much easier for the campaign to organize rides and get people to the polls over those 17 days of early voting. Obama had a great ground game, but if you only have 13 hours to get everyone out, it’s much harder.”
The weather — rain across most of the state — also played a role, but not in the traditional way. Bad weather usually holds down the Democratic vote because Democrats tend to be poorer and have more difficulty than Republicans getting to the polls. But in this case, it benefited the Democrats because it also held down the Republican vote — and the Democrats had their early votes in the bank.
The state’s 15 electoral votes bring Mr. Obama’s total electoral votes to 364, compared with 162 for Mr. McCain. Twelve electoral votes remain to be counted, 11 from Missouri, which has yet to be called, and one from a Congressional District in Nebraska, which splits its electoral votes.
But the electoral votes are not the story in North Carolina. The story is how the Obama organization turned the tide in this culturally conservative state and then drilled its voters to go to the polls early.
Across the board, Mr. Obama out-performed Senator John Kerry, who lost the state by 12 percentage points to President Bush in 2004. Both blacks and suburban voters came out in record numbers this time. And he cut the Democratic losses in some of the state’s most Republican counties.
Most of Mr. Obama’s margin of victory came in the state’s seven urban centers. This year, 22 percent of the total electorate was black, according to Mr. Jensen’s analysis, compared with 18.6 percent in 2004 (the 2004 figure comes from the state elections board; the exit polls that year were wrong). Mr. Obama won about 35 percent of the white vote. Given the numbers, Mr. Obama’s total was about one-third black and two-thirds white.
Obama on election eve: A guy who expects to win
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer
Obama Voices Confidence on Election Eve
Latest Photos of Barack Obama
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Barack Obama looks and acts like a guy who expects to win.
Just look at his election eve schedule. While John McCain rushed around to seven states for last-minute campaigning on Monday, Obama didn't appear before voters until after 11 a.m., the first of just three events for the day.
Before that, he did radio interviews from his hotel room - then he headed out in sweat pants and a ball cap for a 45-minute workout at a gym.
"What is the one thing at this point that has you a little bit concerned?" he was asked by syndicated radio host Russ Parr.
"You know, I feel pretty peaceful, Russ, I gotta say," Obama replied. "Because my attitude is, if we've done everything we can do, then it's up to the people to decide. And the question is going to be who wants it more. And I hope that our supporters want it bad, because I think the country needs it."
Obama's supporters were nothing if not fired up. About 9,000 came to his event in conservative-leaning Jacksonville, while across the state in Tampa, McCain drew less than 1,000. Obama's crowd was decked out in campaign T-shirts that said things like "Obama is my homeboy," and stood in their seats at Veterans Memorial Arena before he got there, dancing to a warm-up soundtrack that included India.Arie's song, "There's Hope."
By now clad in suit and tie, he told them, "I have just one word for you, Florida: 'Tomorrow.'"
Actually, he had a lot of words for them - recapping his long campaign and looking to the future - once he quieted their screaming. Sensing victory, the crowd was exuberant.
He talked about starting out "in the depths of winter nearly two years ago on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill."
"I voted for you!" called out an audience member.
"Thank you for the vote," Obama said, trying with a smile to pick up the thread of his speech in front of a crowd that was ready to celebrate.
"Back then we didn't have much money," he said. "We didn't have - all right, you all, let's settle down."
He said that after "21 months of a campaign that's taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one day away from changing the United States of America."
The polls gave Obama reason for confidence - he was ahead in every state that Democrat John Kerry won in 2004 and a few that President Bush won as well. He said Sunday that campaigning with his family before massive crowds over the weekend had him thinking he might indeed be headed to victory, but he told the Jacksonville crowd it would be close and they needed to "work like our future depends on it in the next 24 hours, because it does."
Obama delivered the speech knowing some bad news: He found out in his hotel room Monday morning that his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died after a battle with cancer. She had helped raise him, and Obama and his sister issued a statement after he landed in North Carolina Monday afternoon that said, "She was cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances." Obama left the campaign for two days last week to spend some time with her in Hawaii.
At his next appearance at a Charlotte volunteer call center, he kept his grief to himself and bounded in asking to talk to voters they were dialing on their cell phones. On one call, he could be overheard telling the voter that as his grandmother became sick she was able to stay in her home with the help of a home care aide, without mentioning that she died late Sunday night.
Obama's aides said he would continue with his final campaign plans. On election eve, he focused on voters in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia in a schedule similar to what he's been keeping for the past couple of weeks - on offense in Republican red states, energetic but not as aggressive as McCain.
The pace had Obama unable to keep track of where he was for a moment.
"The Republicans are spending a lot of money on ads here in Ohio," he told the Florida crowd, which chided him with a chorus of boos before Obama corrected himself. "Florida! I've been traveling too much."
Obama reminded the crowd that McCain had campaigned in the same arena a few weeks ago and said the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." When the crowd jeered the idea, Obama repeated his favorite line of recent days, "You don't need to boo, you just need to vote."
In his speech, he hit his usual points:
- "We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," and McCain would just give the country more George Bush.
- McCain has served the nation honorable, but "the truth is John McCain just doesn't get it."
- Something must be done about families who have no insurance - or insurance that won't pay.
- "I will end this war."
Meanwhile, the election.
When did it hit home that he might actually win? As far back as the night he won the Iowa Democratic caucuses on Jan. 3, he allowed during the day. Still, he said over and over that he and his supporters must drive through the finish, assume nothing.
Not that he wasn't thinking ahead, too.
What keeps him up at night? he was asked by ABC News Radio's Ann Compton.
"Not actually winning or losing," he said. "It's governing."
This past week we asked our supporters to step up and help us Get Out The Vote. You answered in amazing ways. People across the country got involved for the first time, the third time, or continued what they have been doing since the primaries. In Iowa, Barbara Cave isn't letting old age keep her from making phone calls and volunteering.
Across the country, enthusiasm for the presidential campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican John McCain of Arizona have motivated thousands of people to get out and volunteer in support of each candidate's bid for office....At 77, Barbara Cave of Burlington has voted in a lot of presidential elections.The native of Elmhurst, Ill., who moved to Iowa for the last 15 years of a teaching career that spanned 20 years and ended in 1992, grew up in a Republican household and cast her first vote for president in 1956, the year Dwight Eisenhower won re-election.....Her belief in Obama is deeply felt."He is the candidate who can end polarization," she said, citing a political mood in the country that has pitted family members against one another and ended friendships.If Election Day ends Tuesday night with an Obama victory, Cave said she will be thankful and probably will cry....Despite some nagging heart problems that slow her down some, Cave still has made an effort to pitch in to support Obama in his quest for the presidency. She worked for him at caucus time last winter, and now visits Des Moines County Democratic headquarters at least twice a week, where she calls Democratic and uncommitted voters, urging them to support the Obama-Biden ticket."I wish I were 40 years younger," she said, comparing her enthusiasm to her ability to work longer than two or three hours at a stretch. "I only have so much steam."
Our supporters in Missouri are doing everything possible, using all 44 field offices to Get Out The Vote.
Presidential elections are not just won by a candidate making promises at rallies and on countless television ads.They're won door-by-door on the ground in battleground states like Missouri, a traditional swing state that often sides with the winner.With polling locations set to open within the next 48 hours, thousands of volunteers for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are knocking on doors across southwest Missouri and making phone calls to voters, reminding them to vote and encouraging them to vote for their respective candidate.For Obama's team, this will be the first nationwide test of a new grass-roots organization that got a boost of confidence in the Democratic primary when it helped defeat Sen. Hillary Clinton's well-oiled political machine."The field operation is what's going to put us over the edge," said Buffy Wicks, Obama's state director. "It's those last face-to-face, door-to-door conversations that's going to help us close the deal."Since Obama wrapped up a long primary campaign in June, his campaign has had a more visible presence in Missouri, establishing an unprecedented 44 field offices this summer....For the final days of the election, Obama's campaign has established 100 temporary staging locations in community buildings and union halls for organizing some 25,000 volunteers to knock on 1.3 million doors in Missouri and make 25,000 phone calls.
The effort made on the ground in Pennsylvania will be what keeps the Keystone State blue.
Legions of foot soldiers for both presidential campaigns fanned out across Western Pennsylvania yesterday for the final 72-hour push to Tuesday's election, knocking on doors and making cold calls to ensure their supporters vote.Workers for Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama drew from volunteer lists and from call sheets developed over the long campaign, saying that in a battleground state such as Pennsylvania, they were leaving nothing to chance.From Erie to Pittsburgh and from Sharpsburg to Bethel Park, efforts to "Get out the vote" were aided on this first weekend of November by sunny skies and temperatures that in places approached 70 degrees.Some of those leaving pamphlets in doorways were working in neighborhoods adjoining their own. Others who trudged over fallen leaves came from thousands of miles away, part of a flood of volunteers from less contested states who arrived this weekend by plane, bus or car to bolster the ranks of local supporters....Suzanne Hall, 55, an Obama volunteer who lives in Shadyside, was only minutes into canvassing part of East Liberty when the first resident she encountered left little doubt that she supported Mr. Obama."I will be voting," the woman said as she stepped quickly out the door of her apartment building before driving off. "That is gonna make history...."The Obama campaign was also benefiting from out-of-state volunteers eager to help this weekend.Busloads of students from the University of Rochester and from Syracuse University were due to arrive, said Allison Price, an Obama campaign spokeswoman. There were even supporters from Toronto expected in Erie, she said.At an Obama site in East Liberty, several dozen volunteer canvassers were trained and then sent out to surrounding neighborhoods, holding packets of addresses of registered voters. The workers were told where it is and is not legal to place literature and given advice on engaging those who answer doors."No matter what the polls say. No matter what the news says. If we don't get out the vote, then we don't win Pennsylvania," Martha Riecks, a volunteer and canvass coordinator, said as she conducted one training session yesterday morning.She reminded the canvassers to ask for Election Day volunteers who might become useful as cheerleaders encouraging those waiting in long lines to stick it out and vote.Ms. Price said the next few days are "everything we've been working for in terms of organization." She said the campaign "has been fueled by excitement from the start. Grass-roots support has been the backbone of this operation."
The weekend has ended, but our Get Out The Vote effort is not stopping. Monday is the last day before the polls open.
We cannot let up now.
If you have to work today, make some phone calls during lunch and when you get home tonight. If you can take the day off, go to your local office and sign up for a GOTV shift. We also need people working all day Tuesday to help drive voters to the polls, make phone calls to tell people where to vote, and to remind everyone to get to the polls and cast their ballot. Whoever gets the most people to show up at the polls on Tuesday will be the next president. Let's make sure it's Barack.
“We’re going to have to make sure they turn out, or we probably won’t win.” - Steve Hildebrand, Obama deputy campaign manager
Saturday lines for absentee voting in Virginia
This morning marked the beginning of our four day Get Out The Vote drive -- the final, all-out effort to get as many voters to the polls as possible. The phones are quiet now and the canvassing is done for the day, but in offices across the country volunteers will be up late into the night recording results and updating lists for tomorrow.
CBS News reports that in New Mexico:
The Obama ground game, says [Espanola Mayor Joe Maestas], is unprecedented. "His campaign has 39 offices statewide, in comparison to less than 10 for John Kerry in 2004. Barack Obama's total is as much as four times that of the McCain campaign," he said. That outreach has swelled Obama's corps of volunteers in the town of 10,000. "We're just honored that he even stopped in our community and so we're kind of we feel like we want to repay that courtesy by volunteering and get directly involved," said Obama supporter Albert Cata.
The story is the same in almost two dozen battleground states across the country. In large cities and small town like Espanola, we've built the largest field operation in history, with nearly a thousand field offices and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
In the last few days, the McCain campaign's own plan for the final push has become clear. On Saturday the Washington Post reported:
Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists....the Republican nominee squirreled away enough funds to pay for a raft of television ads in critical battleground states over the next four days, said Evan Tracey, a political analyst who monitors television spending.The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy.
Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists.
...the Republican nominee squirreled away enough funds to pay for a raft of television ads in critical battleground states over the next four days, said Evan Tracey, a political analyst who monitors television spending.
The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy.
This is their strategy, to invest in television ads and automated phone calls designed to distract from the issues, to create cynicism and fear. This is what they've invested in.
This is what we've invested in:
And this:
We're one day in to GOTV, with three days to go. We've created a field operation that extends to every state, but it's a lifeless machine without the volunteers who power it.
We still have thousands of volunteer shifts to fill across the country, from knocking doors to making phone calls, organizing lit drops and processing data. No matter where you live, if you can commit to one or more shift between now and the close of polls on the Election Day, sign up now. Just enter your zip code and we'll show you when and where you're needed most.
After 21 months, it comes down to this -- ordinary people versus attack ads and robocalls, change versus the status quo, hope versus fear.
Polls close in three days.
From the New York Times:
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama began their final push for the White House on Saturday across an electoral map markedly different from four years ago, evidence of Mr. Obama’s success at putting new states into contention and limiting Mr. McCain’s options in the final hours. Mr. Obama was using the last days of the contest to make incursions into Republican territory, campaigning Saturday in three states — Colorado, Missouri and Nevada — that President Bush won relatively comfortably in 2004. Across the country, there was abundant evidence of just how much excitement the contest had stirred: In Colorado, 46 percent of the electorate has already voted in that state’s early voting program. Voters in states like Missouri, Montana, North Carolina and Virginia were getting knocks on their doors, telephone calls and leaflets slipped under their windshield wipers. ...“After 12 months and three debates,” Mr. Obama said in Henderson, Nev., “John McCain has not been able to tell the American people a single major thing that he would do different from George Bush on the economy.” ...The campaign’s final days brought a reminder of how Mr. Obama’s financial might had allowed him to redraw the political map. In addition to the states he visited on Saturday, Mr. Obama was planning stops Sunday in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, which went Republican four years ago.
In response to news that the United States' Gross Domestic Product has declined for the first time this year, Senator Obama released the following statement:
This morning, we learned that GDP has fallen for the first time this year, which means America is producing less and selling less and our economy is shrinking. American consumers were especially hard hit, experiencing their largest decline in spending in 28 years as wages failed to keep up with the rising cost of living. The decline in our GDP didn’t happen by accident – it is a direct result of the Bush Administration's trickle down, Wall Street first, Main Street last policies that John McCain has embraced for the last eight years and plans to continue for the next four. These policies didn’t work then, they won’t work now, and I’m running for President to end them. We need to grow our economy by creating jobs, providing tax relief for middle class families, and helping people stay in their homes, and that is exactly what I will do as President.
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."
Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.
"They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day."
The daughter, who wanted her name withheld fearing retribution from her employer, confirmed the story to us. "It was like at least 40 people," the daughter said. "People thought the script was nasty and they didn't wanna read it."
A second worker at the call center confirmed the episode, saying that "at least 30" workers had walked out after refusing to read the script.
"We were asked to read something saying [Obama and Democrats] were against protecting children from danger," this worker said. "I wouldn't do it. A lot of people left. They thought it was disgusting."
This worker, too, confirmed sacrificing pay to walk out, saying her supervisor told her: "If you don't wanna phone it you can just go home for the day."
The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.
Sunday Endorsements: "A landslide for Obama"by Christopher Hass
Sunday October 26 2008 11:10:46 PM
Editor&Publisher described this morning's newspaper endorsements as "a landslide for Obama." Some of the highlights include:
Iowa - Des Moines Register:
An Obama presidency presents the best hope for a unified America that aspires to greatness again.
iowa - Quad City Times:
Already, Obama is demonstrating presidential leadership and demeanor, displaying steely calm against an avalanche of unfair attacks, distortions and distractions.
Florida - Gainesville Sun:
Obama has, through the power of his rhetoric and reason, captured the imagination of millions of Americans who have little interest in politics-as-usual.
Louisiana - Times-Picayune:
We believe that Barack Obama could help restore our reputation as a land of opportunity. But that benefit is dwarfed by a larger potential that we think an Obama presidency could achieve: Seizing the chance for America to lead and, at a time of crisis and transformation, be a global pioneer.
Pennsylvania - Wilkes-Barre Times Leader:
But Obama’s composure – combined with his intelligence, ideas, communication skills and capacity to rally people to a cause – gave our endorsement board the evidence it needed to reach a decision: Democrat Barack Obama is the man for the job.
Pennsylvania - Pocono Record:
Obama's early opposition to the war attracted his initial supporters. Since then his steady, measured, intelligent approach to a wide range of issues has drawn millions more, including many well-known Republicans, to his campaign.
Virginia - Staunton News Leader:
Obama brings a freshness, good ideas and, above all, the confidence that we will be led by an administration that will restore a better life for Americans, trust among the nations of the world and decisions made with all of us in mind, not just the upper class.
Other newspapers endorsing Barack today included the Coloradoan, the Vail Daily, the Pensacola News Journal, the Bloomington Pantagraph, the Decatur Herald & Review, the Southtown Star, the Billings Gazette, the Keene Sentinel, the Valley News, the Cherry Hill Courier Post, the Pottstown Mercury, the Patriot News, the Beaver County Times, the Delware County Times, the Times West Virginian and more.
In all, over 35 newspapers endorsed Barack Obama today, bringing the current total number of endorsements to over 173.
Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance.
As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.
•
Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.
In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.
Given the particularly ugly nature of Mr. McCain’s campaign, the urge to choose on the basis of raw emotion is strong. But there is a greater value in looking closely at the facts of life in America today and at the prescriptions the candidates offer. The differences are profound.
Mr. McCain offers more of the Republican every-man-for-himself ideology, now lying in shards on Wall Street and in Americans’ bank accounts. Mr. Obama has another vision of government’s role and responsibilities.
In his convention speech in Denver, Mr. Obama said, “Government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves: protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.”
Since the financial crisis, he has correctly identified the abject failure of government regulation that has brought the markets to the brink of collapse.
The Economy
The American financial system is the victim of decades of Republican deregulatory and anti-tax policies. Those ideas have been proved wrong at an unfathomable price, but Mr. McCain — a self-proclaimed “foot soldier in the Reagan revolution” — is still a believer.
Mr. Obama sees that far-reaching reforms will be needed to protect Americans and American business.
Mr. McCain talks about reform a lot, but his vision is pinched. His answer to any economic question is to eliminate pork-barrel spending — about $18 billion in a $3 trillion budget — cut taxes and wait for unfettered markets to solve the problem.
Mr. Obama is clear that the nation’s tax structure must be changed to make it fairer. That means the well-off Americans who have benefited disproportionately from Mr. Bush’s tax cuts will have to pay some more. Working Americans, who have seen their standard of living fall and their children’s options narrow, will benefit. Mr. Obama wants to raise the minimum wage and tie it to inflation, restore a climate in which workers are able to organize unions if they wish and expand educational opportunities.
Barack spoke to residents of Richmond, Virginia this morning. He reminded them that the last two weeks of the campaign will be full of distractions -- with the Republican party trying to change the subject from the issues at hand to distract Americans from what really is at stake in this election.
Because one thing we know is that change never comes without a fight. In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over. We’ve seen it before. And we’re seeing it again today. The ugly phone calls. The misleading mail and TV ads. The careless, outrageous comments. All aimed at keeping us from working together, all aimed at stopping change. Well, what we need now is not misleading charges and divisive attacks. What we need is honest leadership and real change, and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States. ...Now my opponent is doing his best to change the subject and try to distract attention from the economy. Senator McCain’s campaign actually said a couple of weeks ago that they were going to launch a series of attacks on my character because, they said, “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” And that’s a promise my opponent has kept. He’s been on the attack. That’s what you do when you are out of ideas, out of touch, and running out of time. Well, Virginia, here's what my opponent doesn't seem to understand. With the economy in turmoil and the American Dream at risk, the American people don't want to hear politicians attack each other - you want to hear about how we're going to attack the challenges facing middle class families each and every day. That’s what I’m talking about in this campaign. That’s what I’ll do as President. Because I can take two more weeks of John McCain’s attacks, but the American people can’t take four more years of the same failed policies and the same failed politics. Read Barack's full remarks as prepared for delivery...
If the mainstream media had done its job properly these past eight years, perhaps the entire political landscape would be different. Perhaps voters would be more informed; would understand the issues better. Perhaps the Iraq war would be a bigger priority among Americans. Perhaps there'd be much more accountability in Washington. Perhaps Bush would not have been re-elected. But the press has been utterly neutered during the Bush years, and they've been no less silent and ineffectual in the current presidential campaign. Thankfully, we have hard-hitting "journalists" like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Joy Behar and David Letterman to aggressively ask the direct questions that the "real" journalists are curiously too afraid to ask.
Sen. John McCain, who infamously dissed Letterman weeks ago by canceling an appearance with the excuse that he had to "rush to Washington" to save the country from financial crisis, only to appear minutes later on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, returned to the program Thursday night. He received more than a subtle tongue-lashing from Big Dave, whose performance made this week's debate host Bob Schieffer seem like a high school newspaper reporter. Letterman admirably pressed the feisty little Republican on several key issues in a manner that should embarrass the hell out of working journalists.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
On the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain's vice presidential running mate:
Letterman: ...the question is, if she had been a man, would you also have selected him as a man? McCain: Yes, because I believe that Sarah Palin is a reformer.... very proud to have Sarah with me and I think she has energized our ticket and energized a lot of Americans. Letterman: No question about that. But I'll tell you... I mean, was she your first choice? McCain: Absolutely. Letterman: Had you spent time with her? McCain: A couple of times, I'd met with her. I didn't know her real well but I knew her reputation and I didn't know her well at all. I didn't know her well at all. I knew her reputation as a reformer... Letterman: ...if you are unable to fulfill your office, we get a 9/11 attack, Sarah Palin is the president who leads us through that. McCain: Sure. She's been the governor of a state with 24,000 employees.... Letterman: Let me just get back to my question. Well, I mean, either you're right or you're wrong. You know what you're talking about or you don't know what you're talking about. But I'm just telling you from my perspective that I thought, Oh, oh my God. I'm sure she's a lovely woman. I'm sure she's done a great job in Alaska. But in terms - this country. I'm 61. I've never seen it in this big a mess. I've seen economic problems. I've seen war. I've never seen a combination of things quite like this. I've never seen the free fall diminishment of the impression of the United States around the country. I've never seen anything like this. I have a four-year-old son. I wonder what the hell, is it going to be 160 twenty years from now on his birthday? So I'm thinking, alright, this is a pretty important job. McCain: But with all due respect, she's had the leadership experience that's necessary to run bureaucracies, to reform...And because she was not known inside the Georgetown cocktail circuit, doesn't matter to me. Letterman: Let me ask you a question. In your guts, in your stomach - you're a smart, tough, savvy guy -...If I were to run upstairs, wake you up in the middle of the night, and say, "John, is Sarah Palin really the woman to lead us through the next four, eight years? Through the next 9/11 attack?" McCain: Absolutely. She has inspired Americans. That's the thing we need. We need inspiration now....But I think America is crying out for change. And she represents the kind of change that we need. Have we pretty well exhausted this topic?
McCain: Yes, because I believe that Sarah Palin is a reformer.... very proud to have Sarah with me and I think she has energized our ticket and energized a lot of Americans.
Letterman: No question about that. But I'll tell you... I mean, was she your first choice?
McCain: Absolutely.
Letterman: Had you spent time with her?
McCain: A couple of times, I'd met with her. I didn't know her real well but I knew her reputation and I didn't know her well at all. I didn't know her well at all. I knew her reputation as a reformer...
Letterman: ...if you are unable to fulfill your office, we get a 9/11 attack, Sarah Palin is the president who leads us through that.
McCain: Sure. She's been the governor of a state with 24,000 employees....
Letterman: Let me just get back to my question. Well, I mean, either you're right or you're wrong. You know what you're talking about or you don't know what you're talking about. But I'm just telling you from my perspective that I thought, Oh, oh my God. I'm sure she's a lovely woman. I'm sure she's done a great job in Alaska. But in terms - this country. I'm 61. I've never seen it in this big a mess. I've seen economic problems. I've seen war. I've never seen a combination of things quite like this. I've never seen the free fall diminishment of the impression of the United States around the country. I've never seen anything like this. I have a four-year-old son. I wonder what the hell, is it going to be 160 twenty years from now on his birthday? So I'm thinking, alright, this is a pretty important job.
McCain: But with all due respect, she's had the leadership experience that's necessary to run bureaucracies, to reform...And because she was not known inside the Georgetown cocktail circuit, doesn't matter to me.
Letterman: Let me ask you a question. In your guts, in your stomach - you're a smart, tough, savvy guy -...If I were to run upstairs, wake you up in the middle of the night, and say, "John, is Sarah Palin really the woman to lead us through the next four, eight years? Through the next 9/11 attack?"
McCain: Absolutely. She has inspired Americans. That's the thing we need. We need inspiration now....But I think America is crying out for change. And she represents the kind of change that we need. Have we pretty well exhausted this topic?
On 1960's radical William Ayers, and the McCain campaign's relentless attempts to connect him to Sen. Barack Obama:
Letterman: No, no. I'm just getting started! Now she's also, she's the one, I think who says that Barack Obama pals around with terrorists. Has she in fact said that at rallies? McCain: I don't...yes. And he did. And refused to acknowledge the fact. Letterman: Who did he pal around with? McCain: William Ayers who said on 9/11 that he wished that he'd bombed more. OK? His wife was on the Top 10 of FBI's Most Wanted. Letterman: But this all took place...when he was active, Barack Obama was eight years old. McCain: Eight years old. And Mr. Ayers in 2001, September 11, 2001, said, "I wished I had bombed more." It's an unrep-- Letterman: But what is that relationship? McCain: It's all we need to know. Senator Clinton said, "We need to know about the relationship." First he said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. And so it's a matter of trusting the word of someone.... Letterman: But did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy? McCain: I met him, you know, I mean... Letterman: Didn't you attend a fund raiser at his house? McCain: Gordon Liddy's?... McCain: I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt. He went to prison, he paid his debt, as people do. I'm not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy. And his son, who is also a good friend and supporter of mine. Letterman: But you understand that the same case could be made of your relationship with him as being made with William Ayers. McCain: Everything about any relationship that I've had I will make completely open and give a complete accounting of. Senator Obama said that he was a guy who lived in the neighborhood. OK, it was more than that. Letterman: They served on a committee at one point....Are they double dating? Are they going to dinner? What are they doing? Are they driving cross country? Letterman: Now she (Palin) said "pals around with terrorists." OK, so alright. Let's say we give her William Ayers. He was eight and William Ayers was 29. But they palled around. (Letterman had also asked why Palin had been using the plural "terrorists" at her rallies, but McCain did not answer) McCain: There's millions of word said in the campaign. Come on!
McCain: I don't...yes. And he did. And refused to acknowledge the fact.
Letterman: Who did he pal around with?
McCain: William Ayers who said on 9/11 that he wished that he'd bombed more. OK? His wife was on the Top 10 of FBI's Most Wanted.
Letterman: But this all took place...when he was active, Barack Obama was eight years old.
McCain: Eight years old. And Mr. Ayers in 2001, September 11, 2001, said, "I wished I had bombed more." It's an unrep--
Letterman: But what is that relationship?
McCain: It's all we need to know. Senator Clinton said, "We need to know about the relationship." First he said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. And so it's a matter of trusting the word of someone....
Letterman: But did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?
McCain: I met him, you know, I mean...
Letterman: Didn't you attend a fund raiser at his house?
McCain: Gordon Liddy's?...
McCain: I know Gordon Liddy. He paid his debt. He went to prison, he paid his debt, as people do. I'm not in any way embarrassed to know Gordon Liddy. And his son, who is also a good friend and supporter of mine.
Letterman: But you understand that the same case could be made of your relationship with him as being made with William Ayers.
McCain: Everything about any relationship that I've had I will make completely open and give a complete accounting of. Senator Obama said that he was a guy who lived in the neighborhood. OK, it was more than that.
Letterman: They served on a committee at one point....Are they double dating? Are they going to dinner? What are they doing? Are they driving cross country?
Letterman: Now she (Palin) said "pals around with terrorists." OK, so alright. Let's say we give her William Ayers. He was eight and William Ayers was 29. But they palled around. (Letterman had also asked why Palin had been using the plural "terrorists" at her rallies, but McCain did not answer)
McCain: There's millions of word said in the campaign. Come on!
So, if you're John McCain, it's OK to pal around with a convicted Watergate criminal who attempted to steal an election; it's OK to use incendiary rhetoric and outright lies to define your opponent; you stand firm in your shameless contention that Sarah Palin is the absolute best choice in the country to be your second-in-command; and...terrorist...terrorists...what's a little "s" among friends, right?. And he's the "Country First" candidate?
Props to Letterman for further exposing this fraud for exactly who is he is, and isn't, and for giving voters a greater glimpse into McCain's shallow character. Mainstream media...you can take a lesson from the Letterman playbook...
John McCain didn't just fail to get the game-changer he needed -- he was trounced in this third and final debate, if the instant post-debate polling provides any indication.
The results over at CBS show Obama to have scored the biggest victory to date: "Fifty-three percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed identified Democratic nominee Barack Obama as the winner of tonight's debate. Twenty-two percent said Republican rival John McCain won. Twenty-four percent saw the debate as a draw."
It is, the site writes, "a clean sweep" for the Illinois Democrat.
Over at CNN, a separate poll of several hundred debate watchers again favored the Democrat by large margins: 58 percent for Obama to McCain's 31 percent. Perhaps more importantly, McCain's favorable rating dropped 51 to 49 while his unfavorable rating increased from 45 percent to 49 percent. Obama ended up with 66 percent favorable rating.
Digging into the details the news is even worse for the Arizona Republican.
Asked who "expressed his views more clearly" 66 percent said Obama, 25 percent said McCain. "Who spent their time attacking his opponent:" 80 percent said McCain, seven percent said Obama. "Who seemed to be the stronger leader:" 56 percent for Obama, 39 percent for McCain. And who was "more likeable:" 70 percent for Obama to McCain's 22 percent.
CNN also conducted a smaller focus group of 25 undecided likely voters in Ohio, and Obama won that too, 15-10.
Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg, meanwhile, conducted some polling before and after the debate and here are his findings.
From the New Raleigh Web Site:
Raleigh’s Obama Presence
Click image to view slideshow
The sprint to the finish line is on for candidates and the numbers are looking good for Democrats in NC. Statewide, Obama is holding a 1-2 point lead in the most recent polls. Ben Smith of Politico reports Obama holding a 50-44 percent lead over McCain with five percent undecided in Wake County, but Raleigh field organizers have their sights set higher and hope to score a double digit victory to carry the state. Obama is all over Raleigh but McCains efforts are nowhere to be seen.
Wednesday night, October 15, about 300 people showed up for the grand opening of a volunteer-funded satellite Obama headquarters located in an old funeral home at 600 St. Mary’s St. aiming to “lay to rest 8 years of GOP leadership.” The downtown Morgan St. location is now solely for operations in southeast Raleigh, making the new satellite office the main headquarters for central Raleigh.
Joining the opening festivities was a grassroots organization known as GASP, Girlfriends Appalled about Sarah Palin. The organization began with 10 women in the Five Points neighborhood and has spread to over 100 members in just three weeks. Every member has committed time and money to assist the Obama campaign. From the GASP web page:
The spirit of GASP! goes far beyond Sarah Palin herself. We’re much more about being for Obama than against McCain. But it was that one, profoundly cynical and insulting choice that hit a raw nerve for hundreds, probably thousands of women here in Wake County.
The next big GASP event, a Barack the Vote concert featuring the LBJ tribute band The Swingin’ Johnsons, will be held at the St. Mary’s office on Thursday, October 23rd from 7:30-10pm. You can also join the GASP facebook page to show support.
