Seems like someone finally grabbed a few news anchors and shook them to the point that John McCain had been creating ads that were outright lies merely to dominate the news cycle. They worked with the knowledge that even bald face lies have to be responded to, thus accomplishing 2 things: 1.) Keep Obama off message and REAL issues. 2.)It keeps the McCain campaign from having to talk about plans and policies they don't have.
A third reason may have been to draw attention away from the outright incompetence Ms Palin demonstrated in her Interview with Charlie, Charlie, CHARLIE!!!.
Note: I truly underestimated Mr. Gibson. I fully expected him to do no more than softball her. He was direct, to the point, fair and asked the type of questions I expect from a responsible media. I hope from here out the news agencies will follow his lead and resist the hyperbole.
Now that McCain's lies have drawn fire from all sides, perhaps he will stop and get back to what the point of the election is. Hopefully America has hit its limit with slimeball politics, and for that matter, flavor of the day politics.
As I've grown older I have seen so many of these utterly regrettable tactics by republicans. I've come to believe that the reason we have up to 20% undecided voters is due to the inability of these fence sitters to develop an opinion of their own. They are perhaps the only group that does not see through these transparent attacks. They buy into cheap clichés and slogans. Tax and spend liberals, Wrong on Family Values, Wrong for America, Universal healthcare is socialism and of course the latest: Obama wants to teach sex ed to kindergarteners.
I have always admired the fact that Democrats have always tried to take the high road. No More. I say kick em in the teeth. If thats what the swing voters understand, then do it. It's ugly, I don't like it, but if you don't go toe to toe with them, you lose, plain and simple. Bill Clinton had a response team that responded to every negative attack within one hour. It worked. It didn't hurt that he was a Rhodes Scholar that came across like a fishing buddy, but thats not Barack's personality.
Both Barack and Joe have to dig deep and go bare fisted. Biden is particularly good at this, but the media is so taken with Palin that Biden's rallies get little to no coverage. He speaks so well to the common man, and he can cut like a knife without being condescending.
People may disagree with me but Palin was picked as much for how much the camera loves her as anything. The most sexist thing that has happened is McCain's selection of her with the idea that Clinton women would vote for her based on her genitals. Ask yourself this: Had Palin looked like Bea Arthur, would she have been picked?, and if she had been picked despite that, would there be this buzz about her? No
Another Palin point: If this woman is so damn tough, why can't she speak for herself about these non-issues, and just why isn't she tough enough to talk to reporters, or take questions from plain ol Americans at all the events she appears at with John?
Folks, the truth is, she is not ready, not now, not in November and not in January. They are hiding her from real questions. The press is debunking her "reformist" image daily and the more they dig up, the less likely McCain will expose her to "Meet the Press". We know Charlie Gibson will set softballs on the tee for her, so that can go in the fluff category. As an unimportant aside, is anyone else sick of her shrill grating voice? She can assert on the topic of the "Bridge to nowhere" "Thanks, but no Thanks" as many times as she wants, but that has been disproven. The point is, she comes across great with a acript, lets see her have to speak her own words.
The McCain campaign has zero policy ideas, they have zero substance, so distraction and slimeball attacks are what they use to keep Obama defending rather than asserting the issues. So I say slap him down on the dirty stuff, and let the 527 groups play in the mud, then hammer him on the issues and force him to answer about the policies he doesn't have. They admitted they don't want this to be an election about policy and issues, they want it to be about the candidates, well force him into the issues, he's given us the roadmap on exactly what his weakness is.
When I as 8 years old I lived in a small East Texas town of about 700 people. In that town, and in the school there was one Black Family, and ironically their last name was Luckey. This was in 1972, and at school they were treated the same as anyone else, at least as I observed. In the town itself it was quite different, they were anything but Lucky. Like many of us there, they had next to no money and they often came to school without shoes, but at school they were one of us.
Here's where the difference sat in. My 8th birthday was coming up, and I was going to have everyone in my combined 2nd and 3rd grade classes come to my house for cake and to play (a poor boy's party) 2 of the Luckey's, Ray and Larry were in that class, and of course they like everyone were invited. The next day, one by one the white students came to me to tell me that if Ray and Larry were going to be there, they would not be able to come. I didn't get it, why couldn't they come if the Luckeys came? Well that night my mom told me why. She told me that it wasn't the kids at all, it was their parents that didn't want them to come to a party that Black Children would be at, and when I asked why, she told me that some people decide who they are going to like or not by how they look.
She told me I had a decision to make, and it wouldn't be easy. I liked ALL my classmates, not just one or 2, but even at 7, almost 8 I had a strong sense of justice.
When I went back to school the following day, my mind was made, but I hadn't told my mom yet. I went to my class, and let everyone know, that everyone was still invited. And Ray, Larry and I had one heck of a good time. My mom told me she was proud of me, and mostly I was happy to have some buddies over to play with.
Not one other person came...this was in freaking 1972! Looking back it is shameful that in the country we all love that we are only 30 or so years separated from such a disgraceful happening, but that was the reality then, and in some hearts it is sadly the same way.
Today we stand on the precipice of History.....if you dont have chill bumps tonight, I dont know what it takes to move you. Just as the Civil Rights movement wasn't the end of the Journey, neither will us electing a Black man as President (AND WE WILL). Each of these steps are monumental, but we must remain diligent and never become complacent. Barack takes us higher than we have ever been, but it doesn't mean the work is done, It means it has re-begun. He will lead us down the path the republicans have constantly sought to block. Barack will bring us out of the ditch of bush/cheney/mccain have kicked the country into and we will all join him on that path for a better, more equitable, more compassionate tomorrow.
I only wish today that I could go to the polls with Larry and Ray Luckey in November to cast our votes for Barack Obama...in my heart they will be with me as I do cast my vote.
I may be lily white, but I have never felt the emotion and pride in America than I do tonight as we finalize the Nomination of Barack Obama as our Next President, for as Nelson Mandela said "We do not care what color the cat is, we care if it can catch mice."
I know I ramble at times, but tonight I am typing straight out of my heart, and I am not worried about self editing.
God Bless Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and all of us as we go forward on this Journey.
That was perhaps the greatest speech I have ever seen her give. As many pundits have said today, and I agree, had she campaigned with the power she brought last night, she would be accepting the nomination Thursday.
I cannot be more proud of her. She is a true Democrat, and I feel the Hillary or nothing people were comforted by her graciousness. It is a proud time to be a Democrat and a proud time to be an American.
Hillary understands that the very future of this country is hinging on this election. If we dont have an Obama win folks, the America that Hillary will be President of in 8 years will be so far down the pipes from the non-American Republican self-servers that she will have the toughest task since FDR had to dig us out of Hoover and the gilded age.
Make no mistake about it. The Republican agenda is to line their, and their associates pockets at our expense. More of the same will only prove to destroy the middle class altogether, leaving us in another gilded age, and likely a second great depression. I am ready for 8 years of Barack Obama followed by 8 years of Hillary Clinton. When that happens, and it will, America will once again look like it did at the end of President Bill Clinton's unprecedented economic growth, and neither of them will place our young people in the line of fire for their own personal reasons.
Just like my earlier post, I implore Democrats, please come home, there is room for everyone at our table. That's what us Democrats are all about :)
Let's get down to brass tacks. All I hear on the news is about Hillary Supporters pledging not to vote, or to even vote for john mccain. I found out an interesting fact that many potential women voters for Hillary were unaware that mccain has pledged to appoint supreme court justices to overturn Roe v. Wade.
When the primary season began and we had a woman and a black man, my thought was what a historic dream! The United States was finally moving out of the dark ages. To be totally truthful, I was prepared to be thrilled with either, and as a matter of fact I leaned toward Hillary, with only the worry that the repulsive republicans had built so much animosity in the country toward her that it could really harm her electability. I was concerned that there were also enough backwards people left in this country that would never vote for a woman or black man if their life depended on it.
Fast forward to today. If I hear of another Democrat who says they will vote mccain or not vote at all because their favorite didn't win, I am going to be ill. What is wrong with you folks? Have you no sense at all? If you folks are going to behave like the little child who didn't get their way so they are going to sit in a corner and hold their breath, then you may as well become republicans, because that's the way they behave.
This isn't like the coup pulled off by bush against Al Gore in Florida, this was a primary/caucus season that I thought Hillary was going to sweep right through. It didn't go that way. Barack won, and in a system of percentage delegates vs. winner take all of the past. I was very happy she stayed in it until the very end, and was offended by those that wanted her to drop out.
Im going to wrap up with this. Pull your damn heads out of your asses and understand you may as well shake hands with george w. bush and tell him how much you have loved the last 8 years. So if you are going to abandon our chances to take this country in the right direction, rather than losing more and more of our civil liberties, and more of our young Men and Women in Uniform, then register republican, and get the lousy president you deserve.
It is your hands and on your conscious now. Make a deal with the devil and cut off your nose to spite your face, or come home to the party you know will get America back to the place we recognized under the Great Bill Clinton and the Surplus he brought us that was squandered by bush and the guy you're considering voting for.
::shakes head::
Thank God we have Joe Biden on our ticket. What more could you ask for? I hope Hillary's supporters will embrace this team, and understand that all of us love Hillary, but Barack is the Nominee, and please don't go to McCain out of spite, please. W has nearly undone our country, and has made our government the shame of the world, and I have no illusions that McCain will be any different, And please, please, please do not waste votes on Ralph Nader, I used to look up to the man, but in what I see as a narcissitic, egotistical move, he continues to sabotage the Democratic Party, when he knows fully well that he will only get enough votes to install a repulseican, yes repulsive + republican. Is it right that Nader or any other voice, like Ron Paul cannot be elected in America? No, it really isn't, but it is the reality we live in, and we all know that. One may as well vote for Santa Claus.
I will address the problems of the 2 party system in another post, but right now, its time for Democrats to come home, and it is time for all those who were steamrolled by the boosh administration and those who believe in the Constitution and Checks and Balances to see that McCain =more of the same. Senator Obama seeks to re-establish our government as the beacon for the world, and remind us why we get chillbumps when we put our hands on our hearts as the National Anthem plays.
