Unite for Change

Miami-Dade's Democratic resurgence

Doc from Orlando, FL — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:01:06 EDT

Miami-Dade's Democratic resurgence by kos
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/18/12328/9349/757/569782
Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 03:06:15 PM PDT

Check out the numbers in Miami-Dade this year alone, from January to August:

January 1, 2008:

Total Dem Rep
White 263,649 119,026 85,021
Black 217,371 178,878 9,278
Hispanic 535,188 138,622 252,896

Total 1,083,720 459,370 360,458

August 1, 2008 (PDF):

Total Dem Rep
White 271,244 123,603 86,406
Black 239,486 200,666 9,358
Hispanic 581,069 164,529 260,222

Total 1,169,252 515,545 369,771

Of 85,532 new registered voters in the south Florida county, 56,175 were Democrats, only 9,313 were Republican. That is, 66 percent of new registration were Democratic, only 11 percent were Republican (the rest were third party and "no party affiliation").

Even more incredible is the shift in the Latino voter away from the GOP. Of the 45,881 new Hispanic voters, only 7,236, or 16 percent, registered Republican. 25,907, or 56 percent, registered Democratic. The ranks of registered African American has grown by over 10 percent. And sure, Republicans picked up 80 of them, but another 22,035 of them slotted in with the Democrats.

Want to see how far Democrats have come? Let's go back to January 2000:

Total Dem Rep
White 269,642 133,719 92,191
Black 160,934 139,114 6,921
Hispanic 354,009 86,682 203,403

Total 811,599 370,404 309,915

In 2000, Democrats had a roughly 60,000-vote advantage in the region. Today, it's 146,000. In 2000, 57 percent of Latinos (mostly Cuban Americans) registered Republican, while only 24 percent registered Democratic. That gap has closed significantly today, to 48 percent Republican, 28 percent Democratic. I'd bet quite a bit that the swelling ranks of Latino "no party affiliation" are full of closeted Democrats too ashamed to tell their hard-core Republican parents of their true party sympathies.

This obviously has huge repercussions in several races this fall. At the top of the ticket, Obama will obviously benefit from the increased Democratic performance in the region, and his continued voter registration efforts in Miami-Dade are epic. The campaign plans to squeeze out every last Democrat possible. But lower on the ballot, these numbers have benefits to our three South Florida Democratic challengers in FL-18, FL-21, and FL-25. None of these districts reside entirely within the boundaries of Miami-Dade, but the bulk of their voters do live in that county. Let's see how those district have changed from January 2008 to August 2008 (PDF):

In FL-18, O2B Democrat Annette Taddeo is taking on Illeana Ros-Lehtinen in an R+4.3 district (Bush won it 54-46 in 2004):

Jan Aug

Republican 107,295 109,562
Democrat 89,289 102,433

Total R+18,006 R+7,129

In FL-21, Democrat Raul Martinez is taking on Lincoln Diaz-Balart in the toughest district of the lot -- R+6.2 (Bush won it 57-43 in 2004).

Jan Aug

Republican 107,536 110,278
Democrat 76,491 85,635

Total R+31,045 R+24,643

And in FL-25, O2B Democrat Joe Garcia is taking on Mario Diaz-Balart in a R+4.4 district (Bush won it 56-44 in 2004).

Jan Aug

Republican 110,925 114,048
Democrat 97,577 110,424

Total R+13,348 R+3,624

In a series of elections were every vote will count, the GOP's rapidly eroding voter registration numbers are a telling harbinger of what's to come. All three of these House elections will be close, as will Florida's presidential contest. Every voter registration gets us one step closer to victories that would be game-changing, truly epic.

Islam Hater: #1 New Times Bestseller

Doc from Orlando, FL — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:30:43 EDT

>>>>> Forward this message to your friends and family or use this online form to push back with the truth: http://my.barackobama.com/bookofliesJerome Corsi's new smear book, "Obama Nation" is No. 1 on The New York Times' hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.
Corsi on Islam: "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion"
Corsi on Muslims: "RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together""The Obama campaign picked apart the book's claims in a rebuttal titled "Unfit For Publication," to be posted on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com."
http://www.newser.com/article/d92ic2to0/barack-obama-campaign-sends-out-40-page-rebuttal-to-best-selling-book-that-argues-hes-radical.html

John McCain's reaction to Corsi's Book: "Gotta keep your sense of humor"

On the other hand, in case you missed Senator Obama's must-see interview on Larry King Live last month, please check it out here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2008/07/15/lkl.obama.long.cnn?iref=videosearch

To quote Obama from the transcript:  "One last point I want to -- I do want to make about these emails, though. And I think this has an impact on this 'New Yorker' cover. You know, this is actually an insult against Muslim Americans, something that we don't spend a lot of time talking about. And sometimes I've been derelict in pointing that out. You know, there are wonderful Muslim Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things. And for this to be used as sort of an insult or to raise suspicions about me I think is unfortunate. And it's not what America is all about."

Corsi and his right-wing backers are counting on you not to fight back. Spreading these lies about Barack Obama and Muslims is their best chance to elect John McCain and continue George Bush's failed policies for another four years.

>>>>> Forward this message to your friends and family or use this online form to push back with the truth: http://my.barackobama.com/bookoflies

The latest research on Jerome Corsi's writings:

HATRED AND INTOLERANCE TOWARD ISLAM
"Let's see exactly why it isn't the case that Islam is a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion? Where's the proof to the contrary?"
"Islam is like a virus -- it affects the mind -- maybe even better as an analogy -- it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects."
DESPICABLE WRITINGS ON ISLAM SHOW BLIND HATRED

"The only good Mullah is a dead Mullah." [12/21/01]
"Forget about democracy. Just get out the checkbook and put everybody in Iraq on the payroll. That's all they want. Pay them first, democracy (or some b.s. Islamic version of it) will follow." [6/18/03]
"Mohammed-al-Mohammed proclaiming guidance from his hate-god allah-i'll-be-da*ned-allah kills another dozen women and children by convincing a teenager to blow him/her/self up for victory in another world. Haven't we all had enough of this stupid "religion"?" [5/17/03]
"Another Mohammed-al-Mohammed Islam religion of hate maniac bites the dust. (Top Iraqi army official surrenders") [5/17/03]
"Certainly can't be one of the Islam is a Religion of Peace hijackers?" [Bus Hijacking Near Bremen, Germany] [4/25/03]
"One more Mohammed al-Mohammed el-Mohammed Mohammed iced -- great. " [Car Bomb Kills Egyptian Islamist in Lebanon Camp] [3/1/03]
"Let them build mosques -- seems about all the Germans are worth these days."( Germany's Economic Woes) [2/6/03]
"Islam - the Legacy of Clinton." (AFP: Two Chechens with belts of explosives stopped in Moscow) [12/24/02]
"Islam is like a virus -- it affects the mind -- maybe even better as an analogy -- it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects. A throwback, Medieval, anti-modern, anti-science, anti-knowledge doctrine." [11/26/02]
"Forget it -- the only thing these Islamonazis understand is force -- time to nuke the Temple of the Dome and send this "religion" back to Hell, the place it came from. " [11/17/02]
"Go for the Oil Fields. Set the mad dog lawyers loose!!! Let's ROLL!!! Take even the diapers from their heads. Remember -- according to the Koran, Islam approves of lying as long as it is to non-believers. Saudis are lying killers who harbor killers." [11/17/02]
"All-ah be damned. What took him so long?" [11/14/02]
"Islam is like a virus -- it infects the minds of the believers. Islamonazis are, unfortunately, the logical extreme of the "religion."" [11/13/02]
"Good plan -- raise OBL from the dead every time we get ready to ice another Islamonazi -- ON TO BAGHDAD. LET'S ROLL !!!" [11/13/02]
"Nuke the ISLAM-nazis and let's move on. No more MUSLAMO-fascists!!" [11/10/02]
"Islam has declared World War III against everything non-Muslim. " [10/28/02]
" When will the liberal media wake up to see that Islam has declared a World War against everyting non-Muslim. May Allah be damned to the hell Muslims wish to create on earth." [10/25/02]
" Are there any Islamic "clerics" who aren't violent?" [10/20/02]
" May Islam join the garbage heap of worthless religions we have grown beyond. Any believers of Hermes out there?" [10/13/02]
"Muslims regularly trash religious sites holy to others. Jerusalem has a series of sites the Muslims have wrecked (e.g., the bus station they placed below the "Golgatha" site honored by many as an alternative location for the Christ's crucifixion). Seems like the Muslim principle that it is okay to lie to infidels. Very different mindset -- no respect for anything non-Muslim" [9/30/02]
"ALL Arab MUSLIMS lie (the Koran endorses lying to infidels, namely us) -- none of these names are real -- Abdallah is really Mohammad Mohammad Mohammad readily altered to include Atta or Haj or whatever else they decide to call themselves for the moment." [7/10/02]
"Gotta love this stupid religion, ISLAM -- Makes the Nazis look like a Sunday stroll in the park. ISLAM -- it's gotta be straight from HELL. Just the Devil in disguise -- that seems to about sum it up." [6/14/02]
"Arabs lie. ISLAM preaches lying to Infidels. Fingerprints don't lie. Boo-hoo -- time to demand IDs to check into hotels and passport registration for all foreign nationalists who want hotel rooms. Also, ID checks and passport registrations for anyone renting an apartment." [6/5/02]
"Let's get rid of all the Saudi Arabians -- that would have gone a long way to preventing Sept. 11." [6/5/02]
"Yet another violent raghead named Mohammad. What's new? Islam looks like a cancer, a plague, a deadly virus. No doctor worries about the free speech rights of cancer cells." [6/5/02]
"Yet another Little Islamic Man of Hate. Is there any other kind?" [5/31/02]
"The only thing the Islamic world understands is force. Let's destroy a few of these hate schools and start targeting these mad preachers of hate." [5/22/02]
"Let's see -- who is it not politically correct to profile? Islam the "Peaceful Religion" whose Fundamental believers are insane, suicidal killers that hate America and all democratic societies? Or Arabs whose racial hatred of Jews drives them to create secret societies of terrorists sworn to eliminate Israel and all states who support Israel?" [5/20/02]
"Finally a way to end Jihad. Maybe the whole Arab world will blow itself up -- live by the sword, die by the sword -- seems an ancient formula. Bye, Bye Jihad." [5/20/02]
"I repeat: Muslims, cancer cells. It's hard to tell the difference. No doctor worries about the First Amendment rights of cancer cells. The therapy is to eliminate cancer cells so the body can go on living. Great to repeat it -- keeps the thread going. Let the Muslims stop preaching terror and I'll revise my view. Meanwhile, Muslims, cancer cells is an equation that works." [5/20/02]
"May all these Arab maniacs explode and kill themselves -- next time, maybe they will take Arab*RAT with them. Best solution to the homicide bombers is that they eliminate themselves, with as little loss to civilians as possible." [5/20/02]
"I repeat: Muslims, cancer cells. It's hard to tell the difference. No doctor worries about the First Amendment rights of cancer cells. The therapy is to eliminate cancer cells so the body can go on living." [5/19/02]
"Muslims, cancer cells. It's hard to tell the difference. No doctor worries about the First Amendment rights of cancer cells. The therapy is to eliminate cancer cells so the body can go on living." [5/17/02]
"File under the category "Islam is a worthless, violent CULT, not a Religion."[3/28/02]
THE WRITINGS OF A PARANOID AND HATEFUL MAN

To read more of his posts, follow this link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?name=jrlc MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA:http://mediamatters.org/items/200408060010Corsi on Islam: "a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion"Corsi on Muslims: "RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together"
On Islam and Arabs
CORSI: Let's see exactly why it isn't the case that Islam is a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion? Where's the proof to the contrary? (04/24/2004)
CORSI: Islam is like a virus -- it affects the mind -- maybe even better as an analogy -- it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects... No doctor would hesitate to eliminate cancer cells from the body. (11/26/02)
CORSI: Islam is a peaceful religion as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered, and the infidels killed. (11/22/2002)
CORSI: How's this as an analogy -- the Koran is simply the "software" for producing deviant cancer cell political behavior and violence in human beings. (02/15/2002)
CORSI: Think the liberal press will ever let out that these 2 were lovers -- typical Islamic boy-buggering -- older man, younger man -- black Muslims? I doubt it. Not a pretty picture, but one certain to be hidden by PC media. (11/08/2002)
CORSI: Isn't the Democratic Party the official SODOMIZER PROTECTION ASSOCIATION of AMERICA -- oh, I forgot, it was just an accident that Clintoon's first act in office was to promote "gays in the military." RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women-Haters -- it all goes together. (11/18/2001)

TOO CRAZY EVEN FOR SWIFTBOAT LIARS

Corsi Was Dropped From Unfit for Command Promotions Because of His Anti-Muslim, Anti-Catholic Comments. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in an editorial, "Corsi not only considers Muslims to be pederasts, but he took the trouble to slam Catholic priests and refers to the pope as senile. Rather than wonder whether a book written by such a man can be trusted, the marketing tactic has shifted to pretend Corsi doesn't exist." [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), 9/19/04]

John McCain's reaction to Corsi's Book:

What was McCain's reaction when a journalist asked him today about Corsi's book? As CNN reports:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/08/15/mccain-meets-with-t-boone-pickens/#more-12728
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/15/mccain-on-anti-obama-book_n_119203.html

"Gotta keep your sense of humor," McCain responded, before his aides shuttled reporters away.

Corsi and his right-wing backers are counting on you not to fight back. Spreading these lies about Barack is their best chance to elect John McCain and continue George Bush's failed policies for another four years.

Check out some facts about Corsi and his desperate fabrications in the DNC research document below. Forward this message to your friends and family or use this online form to push back with the truth:

http://my.barackobama.com/bookoflies

Together we'll show Corsi and the right-wing smear machine that we won't back down from a fight.

Thanks,

Obama Action Wire.

Contact Jerome Corsi: jcorsi@worldnetdaily.com

When contacting the media, please be polite and professional. Express your specific concerns regarding that particular news report or commentary, and be sure to indicate exactly what you would like the media outlet to do differently in the future.

John McCain: "There will be Other Wars"

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:58:38 EDT

John McCain: "There will be Other Wars"Pat Buchanan worries that McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."MUST SEE VIDEO: http://www.youtube..com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

John McCain: "There will be Other Wars"

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:57:51 EDT

John McCain: "There will be Other Wars"Pat Buchanan worries that McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."MUST SEE VIDEO: http://www.youtube..com/watch?v=PdJUCU1UH2w

Opening of Orlando’s Obama for America Office

Doc from Orlando, FL — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:04:45 EDT

http://orlando4obama.com/blog/?p=121Hundreds showed up for opening of Orlando’s Obama for America Office

A wonderful letter posted on the “Our Story” wall

Whoa! Visitors including local volunteers, members, and state representative candidates showed up in the hundreds for the outstanding opening of Orlando’s Obama for America office; crowds even overflowed in the hall at one point. Gustavo Rivera, a Florida director from “Campaign for Change,” sent out email invitations and the response was overwhelming. And yes, even a few interested Republicans stopped by. Ashley Ball, Obama staffer, graciously presented the local campaign strategy that will help Barack Obama win Florida.

Huge turnout for the grand opending of Orlando office

“Orange County for Obama” banner hides behind the crowd

After the presentation, visitors had the opportunities to reach out to others and share their stories. “Unless we make the change in direction, things will never change for this county,” Dr. Sultan Rahaman, a local resident who has been living in Central Florida for over twenty years. Dr. Rahaman has never volunteered for a political campaign until Barack Obama came along; he recently hosted the “United for Change” meeting.

Another visitor who has never volunteered for a political campaign before was Horace Dawson. He has opened up his home for Obama staffers to lodge in. “Excited...great opportunity for the country. Barack impresses our dreams so well,” Horace is a local member of the Metropolitan Orlando Urban League who helped put together the recent National Urban League Conference in Orlando. Geraldine F. “Geri” Thompson, current state representative of District 39, Scott Randolph current state representative of District 36, Jim Martin, candidate for Orange County Tax Collector, Lonnie Thompson, candidate for state representative, 38th District, were all on hand for the opening.

Several visitors posted their passion and thoughts on the “Our Story” wall

Protecting McCain's Ignorance

Doc from Orlando, FL — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:40:48 EDT

Protecting McCain's Ignorance with a 'Great Wall of Duh'

By Bob Cesca
Posted August 7, 2008 | 04:36 PM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/protecting-mccains-ignora_b_117565.html

Senator Obama on Tuesday said of the McBush Republicans, "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." After eight years trapped aboard this dark ride, finally hearing a Democratic presidential candidate publicly and forcefully refer to the Republicans as ignorant liars ought to be enough to coax even the most indecisive leaner into the Obama column.

But let's take the senator's remark even further. The McBush Republicans don't just take pride in their ignorance -- their entire electoral strategy depends on it.

This is obviously a risky strategy given the existence of things like "reason", "facts" and "truth" -- each readily available to anyone who's industrious enough to seek them out. Fortunately, though, for the McBush Republicans, there's an outside collaborator working in their favor: the barbecue media whose success also depends greatly upon both ignorance and disingenuousness (Olbermann and others excluded). Paraphrasing Woody Allen, ignorance and disingenuousness are, collectively, their various breads and various butters. So the Republicans have a convenient and sizeable zero-barrier of protective stupid surrounding their golf courses and mansions and trophy wives, shielding them from reality. Let's call it the Great Wall of Duh.

To wit: Paris Hilton and Toby Keith have occupied above-the-fold placement in our national political discourse this week.

Barbecue media players like TIME's Mark Halperin are somehow taken seriously even though he's on record having recommended to Senator McCain that he frame Senator Obama as a "Manchurian Candidate" (read that: Islamic terrorist), while also recommending that Senator McCain allow his surrogates to engage in race-baiting. Very serious!

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal told us this week that Senator Obama's thin physique might make him unelectable in a nation of fatties.

Professional television broadcasters from Dan Rather to Chris Matthews can't stop confusing Senator Obama with Osama Bin Laden; and that's only after they wonder out loud whether or not Senator Obama is capable of speaking "mumble talk" in a diner.

And then of course there are the four horsemen of lying ignoramuses: O'Reilly, Hannity, Doocy and Kilmeade. The entire success of FOX News Channel depends on its audience accepting everything at face value.

Suffice it to say, the awful bricks that form the Great Wall of Duh are practically too numerous to list.

It's no wonder that, with such an airtight cocoon, Senator McCain -- after repeatedly being debunked by numerous experts, and after personally conceding the argument -- can go around saying things like this today:

"[Senator Obama is] claiming putting air in your tires is the equivalent of new offshore drilling," McCain said. "That's not an energy plan, my friends -- that's a public service announcement."

Yes, it's a lie. Yes, it's ignorant. But most importantly, it's disingenuous -- deliberately ignorant with the intention to deceive. Not unlike FOX News Channel, Senator McCain is not just exploiting the ignorance of his supporters -- he's counting on it. He and his cynical strategists are counting on their own supporters to be unaware of the verifiable fact that if we maintain proper tire pressure, we would conserve more oil than would be attained with the McCain plan for offshore drilling. And he's counting on his supporters to blindly ditto this line -- a line that's specifically designed to be easily repeated for the sake of painting Senator Obama as weak and ineffectual. Ironic, isn't it.

The entire Bush administration, as well as the modern Republican movement before it, was built upon exploiting the naiveté and ignorance of its supporters. Start with the Southern Strategy during the Nixon years, fast forward to Reaganomics and do the list on down to "freedom fries" and "nobody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Four years ago, Karl Rove and the Republicans, protected by a patriotically narcoleptic corporate media, successfully painted Senator Kerry -- a decorated war hero -- as a gay coward who barely deserved a purple Band-Aid, much less the three Purple Hearts he earned in blood. Without this ignorant, disingenuous framing, Senator Kerry would have surely been running for reelection today. Without this strategy, there probably wouldn't have been the invasion and occupation of Iraq. And, by the way, CNN hosts like Glenn Beck wouldn't be on television -- without equal time given to a liberal talk show host -- comparing George W. Bush to Batman.

This week's episode of AMC's Mad Men reminded us that tobacco companies for years told us that cigarettes were healthy. Likewise, FOX News Channel tells us every damn day that their network is fair and balanced. Cheneybots tell us that torture yields solid intelligence. Senator McCain's entire campaign is predicated upon obfuscating the facts about everything from his support for President Bush to Senator Obama's patriotism and energy plan -- all the while painting Senator Obama (a product of a broken home and who just recently paid off his college loans) as an elitist despite Senator McCain's own wealth, heiress wife and celebrity status. And this ignorance strategy will continue to work as long as the barbecue media maintains its protective Great Wall of Duh.

So as Senator McCain continues to "surge ahead" in the polls with a huge 39 percent, we can count on him to work this ignorance strategy at every level. A month from now we can count on seeing tire-pressure gauges at the Republican convention. We can count on repeated remarks claiming that Senator Obama wants to "lose" in Iraq and, to that point, we can count on Senator McCain continuing to conflate leaving -- now, next year or many years from now -- with losing.

Here's to hoping that more Democrats will step up for a change and call Senator McCain on his disingenuousness, lying and ignorance with the same clarity and strength that we heard from Senator Obama this week.

CNN and WALL STREET JOURNAL on TAXES

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:37:13 EDT

PLEASE SHARE!CNN Crunches Obama and McCain Tax PlansCNN's Gerri Willis compares the Obama and McCain Tax Plans. Clear as a Bell!2:25 minute Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fbxpMw4mco

Prior to joining CNN Business News in March 2003, Gerri Willis was the senior financial correspondent for Smart Money magazine. She attended Columbia Business School as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in 1991-92 and was the winner of the Excellence in Retirement Savings Reporting award for 2001, which is given by the American University School of Communication and the Investment Company Institute's Education Foundation.

Her feature story, The Stock that Ate Cincinnati, was excerpted in Marshall Loeb's book, Best Business Stories of 2001. Her first book, The SmartMoney Guide To Real Estate Investing, was released in 2003; her second, Home Rich, examines how to manage home ownership into the best possible return and and was released this spring.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121737539116495163.html?mod=googlenews_wsjMcCain's Tax Blunder
July 30, 2008; Page A14

One of the miracles of this Presidential election campaign is that John McCain still has a chance to win, notwithstanding his best attempts to kick it away. In his latest random policy improvisation, the Arizona Senator tried to give up the tax issue.

On ABC's "This Week" Sunday, Mr. McCain was asked to draw distinctions between his and the current Administration's economic policy. Given an easy opening, the Senator came back with his usual hodgepodge of new child-tax credits, promises to "veto every single pork barrel bill" and close wasteful government agencies, cut dependence on foreign oil and introduce a gas-tax holiday.

Then host George Stephanopoulos raised Social Security. "You're a longtime supporter of the private accounts, as President Bush called for them." Wishing to further distance himself from President Bush, when he could have drawn an equally useful contrast with Barack Obama, Mr. McCain didn't even own up to his support for private retirement accounts, simply saying, "I am a supporter of sitting down together and putting everything on the table and coming up with an answer."

Mr. Stephanopoulos pressed, "So that means payroll tax increases are on the table, as well?" Here came the words that have caused the McCain campaign well deserved grief: "There is nothing that's off the table. I have my positions, and I'll articulate them. But nothing's off the table."

So given a chance to reiterate his opposition to tax increases -- and underscore a main contrast with his opponent -- Mr. McCain punted. Democrats were quick to pounce, with the Democratic National Committee issuing a press release headlined, "McCain Tax Pledge? Not so much." It provided citations of the presumptive GOP nominee asserting that "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't." Expect the "nothing's off the table" line to show up in Democratic TV spots this fall.

The wandering candidate also put his chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, in an uncomfortable spot. Back in June, the McCain campaign went after Mr. Obama's proposal for a Social Security payroll tax increase on income above $250,000. A President McCain, his adviser then said, wouldn't consider a payroll tax increase "under any imaginable circumstances." So much for that.

Economics has never been Mr. McCain's strong suit, but with Iraq receding as a crisis the economy is the ground where the Senator will have to fight and win. And the tax issue provides him with a potent opening, given Mr. Obama's pledge to raise taxes on incomes, dividends and capital gains. In proposing to raise the payroll tax cap, the Democrat is to the left even of Hillary Clinton. Mr. McCain's Sunday blunder will make that issue that much harder to exploit.

Such mistakes also help explain the continued lack of enthusiasm for Mr. McCain among many conservatives. Meeting with us last December, before the primaries, he declared that "I will not agree to any tax increase," repeating the phrase for emphasis. He did not say any tax increase with the exception of Social Security. If Mr. McCain can't convince voters that he's better on taxes than is a Democrat who says matter-of-factly that he wants to raise taxes, the Republican is going to lose in a rout.

WE MUST FIGHT BACK

Doc from Orlando, FL — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:36:24 EDT

WE NEED TO RESPOND TO THE DIRTY POLITICS THAT McCAIN IS PLAYING. A SIGN OF DESPERATION.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/26/mccain-to-obama-welcome-h_n_115143.htmlIn toughest attack ad yet, McCain attacks Obama unfairly for deciding to skip a scheduled visit with U.S. troops in Germany.

“He made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49hC9TpP_rY

Watch it above.

Read script here.

The ad will air in select markets in Colorado, Pennsylvania, and the D.C. market.

MORE: McCain also hammers the issue home in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.”

According to an early excerpt of the interview: “If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn’t visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event.”

Obama camp responds: “John McCain is an honorable man who is running an increasingly dishonorable campaign.” Full statement here.

FLASHBACK – Senator McCain in 2007: “How can we possibly find honor in using the fate of our servicemen to score political advantage in Washington? There is no pride to be had in such efforts. We are at war, a hard and challenging war, and we do no service for the best of us-those who fight and risk all on our behalf-by playing politics with their service.” [Congressional Record, 5/24/07]

John McCain: MUST SEE VIDEO.

Doc from Orlando, FL — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:05:09 EDT

MUST SEE VIDEO.Jed Lewison presents John McCain's neverending war in Iraq, a look back at the presidential candidate's record in his own words from 2002 - present.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ieHwOm4ljAPLEASE SHARE.

Important Facts about The Surge

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:41:34 EDT

In the past week John McCain and his surrogates have done their best to focus the entire McCain-Obama debate on the question of which candidate was right about the troop surge in Iraq. So it was a little surprising to see McCain on the CBS Evening News Tuesday night get a basic historical fact about the surge so plainly wrong. On Tuesday evening, McCain falsely claimed that the downturn in violence in Iraq's Anbar province was a result of the surge, when in fact the surge began months afterward. Moreover, he said, if it weren't for the work of U.S. forces, the major Sunni figure leading that awakening wouldn't have had the protection he needed.

John McCain's campaign went further on Wednesday, claiming that the major figures that turned around Anbar province would have been killed had the surge policy not been in place. "If Barack Obama had had his way, the Sheiks who started the Awakening would have been murdered at the hands of al Qaeda," said spokesman Tucker Bounds. Sadly, that murder took place even with the surge underway. In September 2007, Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, the sheik widely credited with persuading Sunni leaders to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq, died in a bomb attack in Anbar.

This video clarifies the issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8s_NpaQGC8

Please Share.

McCain makes Iraq gaffe

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:09:10 EDT

McCain makes Iraq gaffePosted: 10:43 AM ET
From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/23/mccain-charged-with-making-iraq-gaffe/ McCain's comments came in an interview with CBS.

(CNN) — Barack Obama's campaign is seizing on a incorrect assertion by rival John McCain that the surge of troops in Iraq was responsible for spurring the so-called "Anbar Awakening" — in which Sunni leaders stepped up their efforts to battle Al Qaeda operatives.

The McCain campaign responded that Democrats are attempting to diminish the role U.S. troops have played in stabilizing the country over the last 18 months.

McCain's initial comments came in an interview with CBS Tuesday night, during with the Arizona senator was asked about Obama's argument that a Sunni revolt against Al-Qaeda and the addition of U.S. troops both played a vital role in diminishing violence in the country.

"I don't know how you respond to something that is as — such a false depiction of what actually happened," McCain said. "Colonel MacFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history."

But Obama's campaign noted McCain's timeline is off. It has been well documented that the “awakening” he referred to got under way in September of 2006, close to four months before the surge policy was implemented. McCain himself used the in-progress Sunni uprising in January of 2007 to advocate the surge policy.

Responding to charges McCain had misspoken, spokesman Tucker Bounds reiterated the campaign’s position that the surge was "responsible for the reduction in violence we have seen over the last year and a half."

"Democrats can debate whether the Awakening would have survived without the surge, or whether the Shiite militias would have unilaterally disarmed without US troops and our Iraqi allies disarming them by force, but that is a transparent effort to minimize the role of our commanders and our troops in defeating the enemy, because to credit them would be to disparage the judgment of Barack Obama and praise the leadership of John McCain," Bounds also said.

"If Barack Obama had had his way, the Sheiks who started the Awakening would have been murdered at the hands of al Qaeda, and US forces would have already left Iraq in defeat," he added.

Brown signals Iraq troops withdrawal

Doc from Orlando, FL — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:10:57 EDT

Brown signals Iraq troops withdrawal

Deborah Summers and Patrick Wintour
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday July 22, 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/22/iraq.gordonbrown/print

Gordon Brown today paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, promising a "fundamental change" of mission in the first half of 2009.

In a Commons statement, the prime minister heaped praise on the work of British soldiers and insisted the security situation in Basra had been "transformed".

"We will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq," Brown said.

"Just as last year we moved from combat to 'overwatch', we would expect a further fundamental change of mission in the first months of 2009 as we make the transition to a long term bilateral partnership with Iraq, similar to the normal relationships which our military forces have with other important countries in the region."

Brown said that violent incidents across Iraq were at their lowest since 2004.

Britain currently has around 4,000 troops based on the outskirts of the southern city of Basra.

Brown previously postponed plans to withdraw 1,500 soldiers due to a spike in militia violence.

Parliament's defence select committee has urged Brown to keep a core of troops in Iraq for years to come to continue training Iraqi police and soldiers.

Today Brown held back from giving an "artificial timetable" for troop withdrawals but gave the impression that progress is such that a withdrawal is possible within two years.

His Commons statement came as a glowing report from the defence select committee, published today, claims "a high degree of security has been restored in Basra", the centre of UK operations in Iraq.

"The preconditions are in place for political progress and economic recovery," the committee says, in a report that is far more optimistic than some of its recent assessments.

Brown, who visited Iraq at the weekend, said Britain was making progress in training Iraqi security forces, and establishing the ability of those forces to employ sophisticated counter-insurgency tactics.

The select committee was told by British and Iraqi security forces that operations against Basra militias largely loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr in March had "resulted in a seismic shift in the balance of power" and that "a large part of its importance lay in the fact that it had been conducted with Iraqi forces in the lead".

The select committee also says that although parts of Basra are not yet under government control, it will be hard for Sadr to regain political dominance since his movement cannot participate in the provincial elections while he runs an avowed militia movement.

The committee also warns that the influence of Iran remains a major factor, adding that the border "remains porous, allowing military and weaponry to flow easily from one country to another".

The Tory leader, David Cameron, today welcomed the announcement but warned against "making premature announcements about troop withdrawals which cannot be met".

About this articleClose This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday July 22 2008. It was last updated at 13:10 on July 22 2008.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

Obama's Unprecedented Trip

Doc from Orlando, FL — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:33:32 EDT

Article Excerpt: Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, is watching with some fascination as Obama travels this week. He may disagree with Obama but nonetheless called him "one of the smartest people we've ever seen run for president." Obama may have "huge structural challenges on cultural and other issues," he added, "but I think he's very smart ... very formidable."http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/21/obamas_unprecendented_trip.htmlWashington Post Dan Balz's TakeObama's Unprecedented Trip

Photos Here: http://thepage.time.com/photos-of-obama-in-baghdad/

By Dan Balz
AMMAN -- Toward the end of his interview on CBS's "Face The Nation" on Sunday, Barack Obama was asked by correspondent Lara Logan how much his foreign trip is aimed at allaying doubts about his readiness "to lead a country at war as commander in chief from day one."

The candidate quickly brushed aside the question. The foreign policy experts and U.S. soldiers he had encountered in Afghanistan seemed not to have any doubts, he said. And then he added something far more revealing about how he sees his trip and his own prospects of winning the presidency.

"The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like [Afghan] President Karzai or [Iraqi] Prime Minister Maliki or [French] President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years [italics added]. And it's important for me to have a relationship with them early, that I start listening to them now, getting a sense of what their interests and concerns are."

For a politician just four years out of the Illinois state Senate and a presidential candidate who has not yet officially accepted his party's nomination, it was a telling moment. Others may see foreign policy as a potential weakness in his candidacy, particularly in a contest against John McCain. Obama is not among them. That was revealed even more clearly when Obama expanded on the value of his trip.

"One of the shifts in foreign policy that I want to execute as president is giving the world a clear message that America intends to continue to show leadership, but our style of leadership is going to be less unilateral, that we're going to see our role as building partnerships around the world that are of mutual interest to the parties involved," he said. "And I think this gives me a head start in that process."

"Do you have any doubts," Logan asked him

"Never," the candidate replied.

A veteran of former president Clinton's administration, someone who understands both politics and foreign policy, described this week's seven-nation trip as one of the four most important events for Obama between now and Election Day -- the others being his selection of a vice presidential running mate, his convention and his debates with McCain.

What struck this person was the boldness of Obama's decision to spend more than a week abroad in the middle of a campaign. Not, of course, for the reasons Obama outlined, but no less an example of Obama's self-confidence. "This is a big-league move to directly address a concern that the American people are going to have" about his candidacy, he said.

What is striking is how Obama's campaign differs from past Democratic campaigns. In earlier years, Democratic candidates couldn't wait to move off of foreign policy and onto domestic issues, aware that their party more or less owned the domestic debate, while Republicans generally held the high ground on national security. The more time they could spend focusing the contest on domestic issues, the better their chances of winning.

That was true certainly for John F. Kerry against President Bush four years ago, and it's clear that the polls currently show that national security issues are McCain's one key area of strength against Obama. Obama's advisers believe the economy will dominate the fall campaign, but the candidate shows no indication that he will try to avoid engagement with McCain over foreign policy.

The journey Obama began when he left Washington last Thursday is one wholly unique in the annals of presidential politics. Everything smacks of a presidential trip. The credentials issued to the traveling press corps on Sunday in Chicago -- reporters will catch up with Obama in Jordan later this week -- say "The visit of Senator Obama to the Middle East and Europe," mimicking the language of a presidential sojourn.

Once he is out of Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama will join up with the press and travel on his newly configured campaign charter, a Boeing 757 that carries the words "Change We Can Believe In" along the fuselage and the distinctive Obama logo on the tail. Never has a presidential candidate been overseas with such visibility.

It long has been said that Karl Rove looked for ways to go directly at the strengths of an opposing candidate, believing that was more effective than concentrating on his or her weaknesses. Obama has turned that around by dealing directly with his own perceived weaknesses is part of his modus operandi.

One of his foreign policy advisers -- he has a stable of nearly 300 -- said the explicit message for the American audience back home will be: "I can be president. I can talk to world leaders. They won't eat me up." The implicit message is equally important: "When President Bush goes abroad, there are big crowds protesting. When I go abroad, there are big crowds cheering."

Whether by the end of this week he will be seen as presumptuous or overly cocky, or ready enough to sit in the Oval Office to satisfy the doubters, is the overriding political question.

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, is watching with some fascination as Obama travels this week. He may disagree with Obama but nonetheless called him "one of the smartest people we've ever seen run for president." Obama may have "huge structural challenges on cultural and other issues," he added, "but I think he's very smart ... very formidable."

But for Gingrich, who is no less lacking in self confidence than Obama, two questions arise about Obama -- one short-term and the other longer term. First, to Gingrich, one measure of the trip will be the degree to which Obama is willing to acknowledge that what he has seen has changed his thinking.

In Gingrich's formulation, no one as bright as Obama can spend 10 days overseas and not come away with insights he didn't have when he started. "If he encounters realities different than he expected, is he willing to actually share that with the American people?" Gingrich wondered.

The second measure for Gingrich is any hint of how Obama would react upon discovering that what he has been talking about won't work. From Pakistan to Iran to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gingrich said, Obama may well discover that the ideas he enunciated during the campaign fall short. "The core principle is, 'so what do you do if the world's harder than you think it is?'" he said.

This is not a matter of projecting humility so much as acknowledging the possibility of errors in judgment or the intractability of problems that have eluded resolution for decades. When Obama says "never" about doubts as to his capacity to handle these problems, he projects the same confidence that has carried him through a difficult campaign. But voters may be looking to see what else he reveals about himself and the world during his week abroad.

Another McCain Foreign Policy Gaffe

Doc from Orlando, FL — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:33:42 EDT

McCain Owns First Foreign Policy Gaffe During Obama's Iraq Trip John McCain made ANOTHER geography gaffe this morning on Good Morning America while trying to debunk Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. Just last week, McCain repeatedly reffered to Czechoslovakia, a country that hasn't existed since 1993.

And it was McCain who owns the first big gaffe of the trip -- appearing to confuse Iraq and Afghanistan.

Asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer Monday morning whether the "the situation in Afghanistan in precarious and urgent," McCain responded:
"I think it's serious. . . . It's a serious situation, but there's a lot of things we need to do. We have a lot of work to do and I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," said McCain, R-Ariz., said on "Good Morning America.

WATCH VIDEO HERE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/21/mccain-owns-first-foreign_n_114013.html

Barack Obama Video Address at Netroots Nation

Doc from Orlando, FL — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:25:00 EDT

Senator Obama discusses the campaign's fifty state movement for change at the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Texas. http://youtube.com/watch?v=dvSF0OG1aZk

John McCain: "It's All In Your Head"

Doc from Orlando, FL — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:27:06 EDT

John McCain: "It's All In Your Head"

We've been listening to John McCain and George Bush talk about the economy, and we've noticed a pattern: they keep saying the problems are all in our heads.

McCain's campaign co-chair Phil Gramm had to step down because of controversy over his comment that we were in the middle of a "mental recession." But the truth is, John McCain threw Phil Gramm under the bus for saying, less artfully, what he himself has said repeatedly. See it by clicking the video on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lu4dcxl4GY

Once you've watched the video, read the article below then pass them on!

July 20, 2008Op-Ed Columnisthttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/opinion/20rich.html?_r=1&hp&oref=sloginIt’s the Economic Stupidity, Stupid By FRANK RICH

THE best thing to happen to John McCain was for the three network anchors to leave him in the dust this week while they chase Barack Obama on his global Lollapalooza tour. Were voters forced to actually focus on Mr. McCain’s response to our spiraling economic crisis at home, the prospect of his ascension to the Oval Office could set off a panic that would make the IndyMac Bank bust in Pasadena look as merry as the Rose Bowl.

“In a time of war,” Mr. McCain said last week, “the commander in chief doesn’t get a learning curve.” Fair enough, but he imparted this wisdom in a speech that was almost a year behind Mr. Obama in recognizing Afghanistan as the central front in the war against Al Qaeda. Given that it took the deadliest Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul since 9/11 to get Mr. McCain’s attention, you have to wonder if even General Custer’s learning curve was faster than his.

Mr. McCain still doesn’t understand that we can’t send troops to Afghanistan unless they’re shifted from Iraq. But simple math, to put it charitably, has never been his forte. When it comes to the central front of American anxiety — the economy — his learning curve has flat-lined.

In 2000, he told an interviewer that he would make up for his lack of attention to “those issues.” As he entered the 2008 campaign, Mr. McCain was still saying the same, vowing to read “Greenspan’s book” as a tutorial. Last weekend, the resolutely analog candidate told The New York Times he is at last starting to learn how “to get online myself.” Perhaps he’ll retire his abacus by Election Day.

Mr. McCain’s fiscal ineptitude has received so little scrutiny in some press quarters that his chief economic adviser, the former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, got a free pass until the moment he self-immolated on video by whining about “a nation of whiners.” The McCain-Gramm bond, dating back 15 years, is more scandalous than Mr. Obama’s connection with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Mr. McCain has been so dependent on Mr. Gramm for economic policy that he sent him to newspaper editorial board meetings, no doubt to correct the candidate’s numbers much as Joe Lieberman cleans up after his confusions of Sunni and Shia.

Just two weeks before publicly sharing his thoughts about America’s “mental recession,” Mr. Gramm laid out equally incendiary views in a Wall Street Journal profile that portrayed him as “almost certainly” the McCain choice for Treasury secretary. Mr. Gramm said that the former chief executive of AT&T, Ed Whitacre, was “probably the most exploited worker in American history” since he received only a $158 million pay package rather than the “billions” he deserved for his success in growing Southwestern Bell.

But no one in the news media seemed to notice Mr. Gramm’s naked expression of the mind-set he’d bring to a McCain White House. And few journalists have vetted the presumptive Treasury secretary’s post-Senate history as an executive at UBS. The stock of that banking giant has lost 70 percent of its value in a year after its reckless adventures in the subprime lending market. It’s now fending off federal investigation for helping the megarich avoid taxes.

Mr. McCain made a big show of banishing Mr. Gramm after his whining “gaffe,” but it’s surely at most a temporary suspension. When the candidate said back in January that there’s nobody he knows who is stronger on economic issues than his old Senate pal, he was telling the truth. Left to his own devices — or those of his new No. 1 economic surrogate, Carly Fiorina — Mr. McCain is clueless. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, a supporter, said that Mr. McCain’s latest panacea for high gas prices, offshore drilling, is snake oil — and then announced his availability to serve as energy czar in an Obama administration.

The term flip-flopping doesn’t do justice to Mr. McCain’s self-contradictory economic pronouncements because that implies there’s some rational, if hypocritical, logic at work. What he serves up instead is plain old incoherence, as if he were compulsively consulting one of those old Magic 8 Balls. In a single 24-hour period in April, Mr. McCain went from saying there’s been “great economic progress” during the Bush presidency to saying “Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago.” He reversed his initial condemnation of mortgage bailouts in just two weeks.

In February Mr. McCain said he would balance the federal budget by the end of his first term even while extending the gargantuan Bush tax cuts. In April he said he’d accomplish this by the end of his second term. In July he’s again saying he’ll do it in his first term. Why not just say he’ll do it on Inauguration Day? It really doesn’t matter since he’s never supplied real numbers that would give this promise even a patina of credibility.

Mr. McCain’s plan for Social Security reform is “along the lines that President Bush proposed.” Or so he said in March. He came out against such “privatization” in June (though his policy descriptions still support it). Last week he indicated he isn’t completely clear on what Social Security does. He called the program’s premise — young taxpayers foot the bill for their elders (including him) — an “absolute disgrace.”

Given that Mr. McCain’s sole private-sector job was a fleeting stint in public relations at his father-in-law’s beer distributorship, he comes by his economic ignorance honestly. But there’s no A team aboard the Straight Talk Express to fill him in. His campaign economist, the former Bush adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, could be found in the June 5 issue of American Banker suggesting even at that late date that we still don’t know “the depth of the housing crisis” and proposing that “monitoring is the right thing to do in these circumstances.”

Ms. Fiorina, the ubiquitous new public face of McCain economic policy, adds nothing to the mix beyond her incessant display of corporate jargon, from “trend lines” to “start-ups.” Before she was fired at Hewlett-Packard, its stock had declined 50 percent during her five-plus years in charge. She missed earning projections — by 23 percent in one quarter — much as she now misrepresents both the Obama and McCain records. This month she said Mr. McCain wanted to require insurance plans to cover birth control medications along with Viagra, when in fact he had voted against it.

Ms. Fiorina received a $42 million payout (half in cash) from H.P., according to a shareholders’ subsequent lawsuit. With this inspiring résumé, she now aspires to be Mr. McCain’s running mate. So does the irrepressible Mitt Romney, who actually was a business whiz before serving as Massachusetts’s governor. Beltway wisdom has it that the addition of such a corporate star will remedy Mr. McCain’s fiscal flatulence.

But Mr. Romney, while more plausible than Ms. Fiorina, is hardly what America wants at this desperate time. His leveraged buyout dealings as co-founder of Bain Capital induced plant closings, mass layoffs and outsourcing. If Mr. McCain truly intends to “put our country’s interests” above politics and reach across the aisle to move the nation forward, as he constantly tells us, why not go for a vice president who’s the very best fit for the huge challenges at hand?

The obvious choice would be Michael Bloomberg — who, as a former Republican turned independent, would necessitate that Mr. McCain reach only halfway across the aisle, and to someone who is his friend rather than a vanquished rival he is learning to tolerate.

Romney vs. Bloomberg is not a close contest. Bloomberg L.P. has roughly three times the revenues and employees of Bain & Company, where Mr. Romney ultimately served as chief executive. Mr. Romney rescued the Salt Lake City Olympics while running it in 2002, but Mayor Bloomberg revitalized New York, the nation’s largest metropolis, after the most devastating attack in our history. The city he manages has more than twice the budget of Mr. Romney’s state.

Yes, Mr. Bloomberg is a closet Democrat and an alpha dog who doesn’t want to be a second banana. And his views on gay civil rights and abortion would roil the G.O.P. base. But Mr. Romney shared some of those same views before he flip-flopped, and besides, these are not ordinary times. Millions of Americans are losing their homes and jobs. Whole industries are going belly up. The national crisis at hand, not yesterday’s culture wars, should drive the vice-presidential pick.

Mr. McCain reminds us every day how principled he is. That presumably means he’d risk a revolt by his party’s dwindling agents of intolerance and do everything in his power to persuade Mr. Bloomberg to join his ticket in the spirit of patriotic sacrifice. The politics could be advantageous too. A Bloomberg surprise could impress independents and keep the television audience tuned in to a G.O.P. convention that will unfold in the shadow of Mr. Obama’s address to 75,000 screaming fans in Denver.

But this is fantasy political baseball, not reality. Mr. McCain, sad to say, hung up his old maverick’s spurs the day he embraced the Bush tax cuts he had once opposed as “too tilted to the wealthy.” And Mr. Bloomberg? It’s hard to picture a titan who built his empire on computer terminals investing any capital, political or otherwise, in a chief executive who is still learning how to do, as Mr. McCain puts it, “a Google.”

John McCain and the Internet

Doc from Orlando, FL — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:17:37 EDT

For your weekend enjoyment. Barack Obama said in a statement. “And there’s no more powerful tool for grass-roots organizing than the Internet.” Well then John McCain is at a great disadvantage! Take a look at this video, please endure the 30 sec commercial at the beginning.

July 14: John McCain admitted to the New York Times that he is finally “learning to get online myself.” Comedian Michael Ian Black talks about McCain’s introduction to that daunting series of tubes and other political funnies.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/25681659#25681659

John McCain on Viagra vs. Birth Control

Doc from Orlando, FL — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:15:03 EDT

John McCain is out of touch when it comes to women's health care. Birth control is basic health care for women. Here is John McCain on his views about birth control pills vs. Viagra. This is the man who wants Hillary Clinton's female supporters to vote for him! MUST SEE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqnmXSXtDkQ

McCain: Strong on Foreign Policy?

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:39:34 EDT

Is this the Presidential candidate whose strength is Foreign Policy?July 16, 2008McCain again cites current events in 'Czechoslovakia'Posted: 07:06 AM ET
From CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
McCain again referred to the nation of Czechoslovakia, which no longer exists.

(CNN) – For the second time in two days, John McCain has referred to current events in “Czechoslovakia” – a country that officially ceased to exist in January of 1993.

“And I regret some of the recent behavior Russia that has exhibited, and I’ll be glad to talk about that later on including reduction in oil supplies to Czechoslovakia after they agreed with us on a missile defense system, etcetera,” said the presumptive Republican nominee at a New Mexico town hall Tuesday.

More than fifteen years ago, Czechoslovakia officially split into two nations – the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

On Monday, the Arizona senator made virtually the same statement about recent Russian moves that troubled him, citing that country’s attempt to reduce “the energy supplies to Czechoslovakia.”

Later that evening, McCain’s campaign sent reporters a statement on the issue, which quoted the Arizona senator calling the nation “the Czech Republic” twice.

MCCAIN'S SUNNI-SHIITE FAUX PAS

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/18/780688.aspx

From NBC's Mark Murray

As one of my NBC colleagues just asked: What if Clinton or Obama had made this mistake?

The Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran. He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq."

More: "Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was 'common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate.' A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: 'I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.'"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More...........

http://thepage.time.com/message-from-obama-spokesman-gibbs/

The self-professed candidate of “straight talk” and “experience” spent today changing his position on gay adoption, adopting Senator Obama’s position that we need more troops in Afghanistan after having resisted taking that position, flip flopping on whether he’d send U.S. or NATO troops (he actually offered three different explanations on where those additional troops would come from), and referring to a country that hasn’t existed since 1992 for the second time in two days.

Here are some clips, in case you missed them:

Afghanistan

LAST WEEK: Christian Science Monitor Reported that McCain “Has Resisted Calls For More Troops In Afghanistan.” “McCain has resisted calls for more troops in Afghanistan and has rejected criticism that the Iraq war is detracting from efforts to secure Afghanistan. He labeled Barack Obama ‘naïve’ for saying he’d strike terrorist targets in Pakistan with or without the cooperation of President Pervez Musharraf. … Aides to the Arizona senator said Wednesday that he continued to view success in Iraq as the best chance for victory in the global war on terror. ‘As on many things, Senator Obama is not listening to our commanders, and Senator McCain is,’ says Kori Schake, a senior policy adviser to McCain. ‘General David Petraeus believes Iraq is the central front in the war on terror. Al Qaeda has even said it is.’ … Ms. Schake’s comments came about two hours after Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said additional troops were needed in Afghanistan but that too many were tied down in Iraq to send more.” [Christian Science Monitor, 7/7/08]

TODAY (MORNING): McCain Called for Sending Three Additional Brigades to Afghanistan and Suggests They Would Come From Iraq. According to a press release issued by the McCain campaign on Tuesday morning, McCain would announce in a speech that he now supports sending at least three additional brigades to Afghanistan: “The status quo in Afghanistan is unacceptable, and from the moment the next President walks into the Oval Office, he will face critical decisions about Afghanistan. … John McCain Supports Sending At Least Three Additional Brigades To Afghanistan. Our commanders on the ground say they need these troops, and thanks to the success of the surge, these forces are becoming available, and our commanders in Afghanistan must get them.” [McCain press release, 7/15/08]

TODAY (AFTERNOON): McCain Clarifies His Proposal On Increasing the Number of Troops, Saying They Could Come From NATO.

“Speaking to reporters on his bus after today’s speech, McCain indicated that he’d be open to those additional troops coming from NATO.” [MSNBC, 7/15/08]

TODAY (EVEN LATER IN THE AFTERNOON): McCain Campaign Further Clarifies Proposal, Saying The Troop Increase Would Be Comprised Of Both NATO And US Forces. “McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace said later that U.S. troops will compose some of the additional brigades McCain would send to Afghanistan, but not all of them. ‘Will we contribute? Of course we will,’ she said.” [Washington Post, 5/15/08]

Czechoslovakia

For the Second Day In A Row, McCain Refers to Czechoslovakia – A Country That No Longer Exists. As MSNBC noted, “For the second time in two days, McCain has made a reference to ‘Czechoslovakia.’ His answers were about contemporary events, not history. McCain did not use the current name Czech Republic, the country formed in January 1993 when Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The first instance was yesterday during a media news availability and the second today during a town hall meeting.” [MSNBC’s

First Read, 7/15/08, http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/15/1200003.aspx]

ABC News Noted That This Isn’t The First Time McCain Has Mistakenly Referred to Czechoslovakia. “In early 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush told Roger Simon, then with U.S. News & World Report, that he was befuddled by how soft the media was on Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. ‘I don’t think there is any plot; I hope there isn’t,’ Bush said. “But it’s an amazing phenomenon, I’ll tell you that. It’s like the flap over the foreign-leader deal. A guy gets up and quizzes me — it’s my fault for trying to answer — but John McCain says something about the ‘ambassador to Czechoslovakia.’ Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia (there’s a Czech Republic and a Slovakia), but yet it didn’t make the nightly national news. I’m not going to gripe about it, but the media question is starting to pop up.’ Apparently that Czechoslovakia lesson never took, because McCain keeps making that mistake, eight years later.” [ABC News’ Political Punch, 7/15/08, http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/mccain-keeps-me.html]

Politico: McCain Campaign Released Statement Yesterday “Cleaning Up” The Reference to Czechoslovakia. As the Politico noted, “yesterday, McCain’s campaign sent out a statement pointedly referring to the ‘Czech Republic,’ cleaning up his latest reference to the defunct state of Czechoslovakia.” [Politico, 5/15/08, http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0708/Jeste_jednou_Czechoslovakia.html]

BUSH VETOES MEDICARE BILL

Doc from Orlando, FL — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:19:07 EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH JUST VETOED THE MEDICARE BILL THAT THE SENATE PASSED.Dear Physician Colleagues, I clicked on the AMA link below (Voting Records) and this is what I discovered. By 69 yeas to 30 nays (Vote No. 169), over 3/5 of Senators voted in the affirmative. ALL THE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS VOTED YES. ALL 30 SENATORS THAT VOTED NO ARE REPUBLICANS!

Nay : 30 Members

Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Wayne Allard (R-CO)
Charles Grassley (R-IA)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Richard Lugar (R-IN)
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
David Vitter (R-LA)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Pete Domenici (R-NM)
John Ensign (R-NV)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
James Inhofe (R-OK)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
John Thune (R-SD)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
John Barrasso (R-WY)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)Not Voting : 1 Member

John McCain (R-AZ)

Senator Barack Obama on the passage of the Medicare bill last week....

"At a time when doctors are facing double digit increases in the costs of providing care, I am proud to have joined with my colleagues to stop a devastating cut in physician reimbursement that would have caused them to shut the door to many Medicare and Tricare beneficiaries. John McCain has said that he would have opposed this bill, demonstrating yet again that he’s more than willing to put the interests of the health insurance industry over our nation’s 44 million seniors and 9 million uniformed service members."
From: valarie@prusiampc.com
To: vprusia05@yahoo.com
Sent: 7/15/2008 1:01:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: FW: Medicare bill vetoed-tell Congress to override!
Please take immediate action – See email link below as well as phone number – We need the House and Senate to vote in our favor to over-ride the veto.
Thanks
Valarie
Valarie Prusia, R.N., B.S.
Prusia Medical Practice Consulting, Inc.
Phone - 321-277-6441
From: AMA Grassroots [mailto:grassroots@ama-assn.org]
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:17 PM!
Dear:
Both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 6331) to stop the 10.6 percent Medicare physician payment cuts that took effect July 1. Unfortunately, the president just vetoed this important legislation.
Congress can override a presidential veto—so call today and tell Rep. Ric Keller, Sen. Bill Nelson and Sen. Mel Martinez to vote to override the president’s veto of H.R. 6331! Use our hotline: (800) 833-6354. Or click here to send an e-mail. Either way, make your voice heard!
Points to make:
This bill passed with overwhelming, bipartisan support in the House and the Senate.
This bill provides an 18-month Medicare physician payment fix, extending the June 2008 rates through Dec. 31 and providing an additional 1.1 percent update for 2009.
This bill preserves access to health care for seniors, the disabled and military families.
Ask lawmakers to stand up and do what is right—vote to override the H.R. 6331 veto.
See how the cuts will impact physicians and patients in Florida if the veto stands.
We’re only one step away from this bill becoming law—Congress just has to do the right thing and vote to override the veto. Please, call (800) 833-6354 today and tell Rep. Ric Keller, Sen. Bill Nelson and Sen. Mel Martinez to overrule the president’s veto! Or click here to send an e-mail—because together we are stronger!
Take Action Now!
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please visit:

OBAMA RESPONDS TO AMERICAN ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS

Doc from Orlando, FL — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:17:50 EDT

Return to Web Version Obama Responses to AAFP Survey

Seniors/MedicareHow would you help doctors who can no longer afford to take new Medicare patients because of Medicare’s declining and unpredictable rate of payment?

Medicare’s reimbursement for doctors is based on a formula that is antiquated, ineffective and overdue for major revision. Any serious proposal to reform this nation’s health care system must prioritize fair and reasonable payment to doctor to ensure access to high quality care for seniors.

How do you propose to correct the physician Medicare payment rate
formula?

Although I acknowledge that corrective changes to the physician Medicare payment rate formula are needed, I believe that a new formula must be developed carefully and collaboratively with physician professional societies. As such, my plan does not include a detailed proposal for a permanent “SGR fix”.

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Health Care ReformDo you support a patient-centered medical home? (In this new model, the traditional doctor’s office is transformed into the central point for Americans to organize and coordinate their health care, based on their needs and priorities.)

Yes, I support the concept of a patient-centered medical home, and as part of my health care plan, I will help providers establish them. Rates of chronic diseases have skyrocketed in the last 2 decades; over 133 million Americans have at least one chronic disease. With proper care, the onset and progression of these diseases can be contained for many years. In addition to the needless suffering and early death they cause, these chronic conditions cost a staggering $1.7 trillion yearly. More than half of Americans with serious chronic conditions have 3 or more different physicians, leading to duplicate testing, conflicting treatment advice and prescription drugs that are contraindicated.

As president, I will encourage and provide appropriate payment for providers who implement the medical home model, including physician-directed, interdisciplinary teams, disease management and care coordination programs, quality assurance mechanisms, and health IT systems which collectively will help to improve care for those with chronic conditions.

Can you describe your plan for health care reform?

I believe that every American has the right to affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage. My plan will guarantee coverage for every American through partnerships among employers, private health plans, the federal government, and the states. My plan both builds on and improves our current insurance system, which most Americans continue to rely upon, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans. Under my plan, Americans will be able to maintain their current coverage if they choose to, and will see the quality of their health care improve and their costs go down. My plan also addresses the large gaps in coverage that leave 47 million Americans uninsured.

Specifically, my plan will: (1) establish a new public insurance program, available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that want to offer insurance to their employees; (2) create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help Americans and businesses that want to purchase private health insurance directly; (3) require all employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees or towards the cost of the public plan; (4) mandate that all children have health care coverage; (5) expand eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs; and (6) allow flexibility for state health reform plans. By mandating coverage for children, making health insurance affordable and
enrollment easy, my health care plan will cover every American.

How does your health care proposal pay for coordination of health care (e.g., email, consultation with other physicians, patient registries, non face-to-face visits)?

Under my plan, the medical system as a whole will save money; we will realize tremendous savings within the health care system from improving efficiency and quality and reducing wasted expenditures system-wide. Specifically, these saving will result from investments in health information technology, improvements in prevention and management of chronic conditions, increased insurance industry competition and reduced industry overhead, the provision of federal reinsurance for catastrophic coverage, and reduced spending on uncompensated care.

While the medical system as a whole will save money, respected economists’ estimate that my health plan will cost between $50 billion and $65 billion per year when fully phased in. The additional Federal costs of the subsidies would be paid for by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for people making more than $250,000 per year, as they are scheduled to do.

Does your health care plan provide for basic primary care and preventive medicine?

Too many Americans go without high-value preventive services, such as cancer screening and immunizations; less than 4 cents of every health care dollar is spent on prevention and public health. I support increased investment in prevention. My health care plan will include coverage of all essential medical services, including preventive, maternity and mental health care. It will require that plans that participate in my new public plan, Medicare or the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) cover proven disease management programs as well. My plan will expand worksite interventions, work with schools to create more healthful environments for children, increase funding to ensure a strong workforce, expand access to clinical and community-based preventive services, and support state and local government efforts to promote prevention.

Why do you think health care costs are rising so quickly? What specific measures do you propose to curb this trend?

Health insurance premiums have risen 4 times faster than wages in the past 6 years, and increasing co-pays and deductibles threaten access to care. Many insurance plans cover only a limited number of doctors’ visits or hospital days, exposing families to unlimited financial liability. Nearly 11 million insured spent more than a quarter of their salary on health care last year. And over half of all personal bankruptcies today are caused by medical bills.

Health care spending is expected to double within the next decade. Though Americans spend almost twice as much per person as citizens of other industrialized countries, their health status is no better and by many measures actually worse.

I believe we must dramatically redesign our health system to reduce inefficiency and waste and improve health care quality, which will drive down costs for families and individuals. The health care plan I propose will improve efficiency and lower costs in the health care system by: (1) offering federal reinsurance to employers to help ensure that unexpected or catastrophic illnesses do not make health insurance unaffordable or out of reach for businesses and their employees (2) ensuring that patients receive and doctors deliver the best possible care; (3) adopting state-of-the-art health information technology systems; and (4) reforming our market structure to increase competition in the insurance and drug markets.

In particular, I will lower costs and improve the quality of health care by supporting disease management programs, coordinating and integrating care, and requiring full transparency about care quality and costs. Additionally, I will align incentives for care excellence, support comparative effectiveness reviews and research, invest in electronic health information technology systems, and reform medical malpractice while preserving patient rights.

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Health Care CoverageThere are more than 46 million Americans without health insurance today; why has the number of uninsured increased over the past decade?

Skyrocketing health care costs are making it increasingly difficult for employers, particularly small businesses, to provide health insurance to their employees. Nearly 47 million Americans—including 9 million children—lack health insurance. Eighty percent of the uninsured are in working families. Increased medical costs and economic conditions over the past decade have dramatically increased the number of Americans without health insurance, and even those with health coverage are struggling to cope with the increasing unaffordability of medical care.

Have you committed, or will you now commit, to making coverage for all a top priority of your administration if you are elected?

One of the very first commitments I made on my campaign was that, as president, I will sign a universal health care plan into law by the end of my first term in office.

Do you support a major overhaul of the health care system, or do you support incremental steps to widen coverage? Why?

I believe that every American has the right to affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage. My plan will guarantee coverage for every American through partnerships among employers, private health plans, the federal government, and the states. The plan both builds on and improves our current insurance system, which most Americans continue to rely upon, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans. Under my plan, Americans will be able to maintain their current coverage if they choose to, and will see the quality of their health care improve and their costs go down. My plan also addresses the large gaps in coverage that leave 47 million Americans uninsured.

Would you support an approach that provides everyone with full coverage for basic health services and catastrophic care, and allows people to obtain additional benefits through private insurance?

The new public plan described in my health platform as well as all existing public plans and private plans participating in the National Health Exchange will be required to include coverage of all essential medical services, including preventive, maternity and mental health care, and catastrophic care as well. Americans will be able to choose health plans that offer additional benefits.

Do you think health coverage for all can be achieved without mandating that each individual have insurance? If so, how?

I believe that the primary reason that uninsured Americans do not have insurance is because they cannot afford it, and not because they do not want health insurance. My plan will ensure that every American has access to truly affordable, high-quality health coverage. It does not include individual mandates to purchase insurance, but it does mandate coverage for children.

If we find that after the plan is implemented all Americans are not covered, we will look to see who is not covered and why and take appropriate action to make sure we get to universal coverage. We have the resources set aside in the plan to do whatever turns out to be necessary to cover everyone.

Do you support providing Health Savings Account (HSA) contributions to help people buy private insurance? Do you believe HSAs are an effective way to help cover the uninsured?

Health Savings Accounts may be a helpful way of saving taxpayers money in the current health care environment. But the current health care environment in unsustainable and health savings accounts don’t do nearly enough. In the long run, it’s going to take more than health savings accounts to provide the kind of comprehensive health coverage Americans need and deserve. That’s why I am committing to signing universal health care reform along the lines I have outlined above by the end of my first term.

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Electronic Health RecordsDo you support the development of grants and loan programs for small and medium sized practices to acquire an electronic health records system that allows physicians and other providers to have instant access to information on treatment options when treating patients?

Yes, it is essential that we modernize our health care system for the 21st century. Most medical records are still stored on paper, which makes them difficult to use to coordinate care, measure quality, or reduce medical errors. Processing paper claims also costs twice as much as processing electronic claims. I will invest $10 billion per year for five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records. Small providers and those serving rural and underserved populations will be prioritized for financial support.

How would your administration balance patient privacy concerns with the need for an electronic health records system?

The primary issue concerning health data collection and sharing will be ensuring patient control and confidentiality. The exact way this will happen will depend on the type of information systems that are adopted for various purposes. Regardless, part of the standard setting process, I will work with the private sector to ensure that electronic records are available when needed, but also confidential and under patient control.

Do you have an electronic personal health record? Why or why not?

[No response provided.]

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Workforce DevelopmentWhat is your plan to increase the number of medical students who choose family medicine and primary care?

Primary care providers and family medicine practitioners have and will continue to lead efforts to protect and promote the nation’s health. Yet, the numbers of both are dwindling, and the existing workforce is further challenged by inadequate training about new health threats such as bioterrorism and avian flu, antiquated funding and reimbursement mechanisms, and limited access to real-time information and technical support. To increase the number of medical students who choose family medicine and primary care, I will expand funding—including loan repayment, adequate reimbursement, grants for training curricula, and infrastructure support to improve working conditions—to ensure a strong workforce that will champion prevention and public health activities.

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Medical LiabilityDo you support a cap on non-economic damages in medical liability lawsuits as a way to help doctors afford to practice in our state?

Since my days as an Illinois state senator, I have been opposed to caps on jury awards for medical malpractice.

At what level? //Or// Why not?

I don’t support such caps because they do not reduce insurance rates and limit the rights of patients.

If you do not support a cap on lawsuits, what is your specific proposal to keep liability insurance affordable?

I recognize that increasing medical malpractice insurance rates are making it harder for doctors to practice medicine and raising the costs of health care for everyone. I will strengthen antitrust laws to prevent insurers from overcharging physicians for their malpractice insurance. I will also promote new models for addressing physician errors that improve patient safety, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and reduce the need for malpractice suits.

My administration will also ensure that insurance and drug companies are not abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases – whether on premiums for the insured or on malpractice insurance rates for physicians. I have introduced legislation in the Senate that would repeal the longstanding antitrust exemption for medical malpractice insurance.

VOTER REGISTRATIONS UP IN FLORIDA

Doc from Orlando, FL — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:43:24 EDT

Great News! Let us keep working hard to increase voter registration. We cannot stop now.

Voter registrations in Florida show 'huge swing' toward Democrats

GOP is way behind in Florida registrations

"Through May Democratic voter registration in Broward County is up 6.7% compared to GOP registrations, which grew 3%. Democrats have posted even greater gains statewide, up 106,508 voters from January through May, compared with 16,686 for the Republicans."

By Anthony Man
Political Writer
July 12, 2008

An escalating number of voters registering as Democrats is providing evidence that the 2008 election could produce a wave of support for Barack Obama — and trigger a decades-long shift of party allegiance that could affect elections for a generation.

The numbers are ominous for Republicans: Through May, Democratic voter registration in Broward County was up 6.7 percent. Republican registrations grew just 3 percent while independents rose 2.8 percent.

Democrats have posted even greater gains statewide, up 106,508 voters from January through May, compared with 16,686 for the Republicans.

"It's a huge swing," says Marian Johnson, political director for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "I looked at that and said, 'Wow.'"

Democrats said Friday it's proof of what they have been seeing for months.

"Who would want to join a failed party? And that's what the Republican Party is today, a failed party," said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D- Delray Beach, co-chairman of Obama's Florida campaign.

Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar credits President Bush for increasing Democratic numbers. "The Democratic brand has cycled back."

The registration numbers could provide a jolt to Republicans and invigorate their efforts.

State Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R- Fort Lauderdale, was blunt: Republicans need to do a better job.

The registration numbers "got my attention; I'll be calling our party chairman this afternoon," she said.

Nicol C. Rae, a political science professor at Florida International University, cautioned against reading too much into the voter registration trends before the vice presidential nominees have been chosen, before the parties have their conventions and before people begin to sharpen their focus after Labor Day.

"It's still a fluid race in a lot of ways," he said.

Acknowledging it's a "tough climate," Cindy Guerra said John McCain supporters shouldn't despair.

"At the end of the day people will wake up and say, 'Gosh, you know what? I would not have open-heart surgery with an intern at a hospital. I would really want that doctor who's been there and has the experience,'" said Guerra, vice chairwoman of the Broward Republican Party.

Still, the long-term implications are potentially significant.

In the 1980s, charismatic and popular President Reagan helped bring a generation of voters into the Republican Party, where they stayed for years, affecting the balance of power in Congress and in state governments.

Wexler sees Obama repeating the same thing today with first-time voters such as Jonathan Caprio — who registered to vote Friday at Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines — joining the Democratic Party.

"I'm excited to vote for whoever is running for the Democrats," he said. "I don't have much of a choice. I don't really like the other party."

Michael Martinez, an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida, said there aren't many people shifting from the Republicans to the Democrats. But the allegiance of first-time voters is significant.

"New voters tend to identify with the hot party at the time. In the 1980s, a lot of new voters were identifying with Reagan, because he was sort of the hot commodity," Martinez said.

Staff Writer Kevin Clark and Aaron Deslatte of the Tallahassee Bureau contributed to this report.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4550.

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbvoters0712sbjul12,0,7473721.story

NEWSLETTER 7-9-08: URGENT MEDICARE ALERT

Doc from Orlando, FL — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 09:49:38 EDT

URGENT MEDICARE ALERT

PLEASE LET PHYSICIANS KNOW THAT BARACK OBAMA SUPPORTS THEM ON THIS ISSUE.

I just received the following e-mail from the AAFP/FAFP. (American Academy of Family Physicians/Florida Academy of Family Physicians). I AM HIGHLY RECOMMENDING THAT THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN WORK CLOSELY WITH PHYSICIANS AND THE AAFP. WE CAN GET THE SUPPORT OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PHYSICIANS (AND THEIR PATIENTS) IF WE DO!

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Florida Academy of Family Physicians <krisitab@moore-pr.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 9:03:00 AM
Subject: Your weekly dose of e-BYTES!

URGENT MEDICARE ALERT - THE FAFP NEEDS YOUR HELP!

JULY 1, 2008 From the AAFP: Despite our best efforts, the U.S. Senate failed to enact legislation that would prevent a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare physician payment, scheduled to take effect July 1. Last week US Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez had the opportunity to stand with physicians and their patients and vote for H.R. 6331, bipartisan legislation that would have averted the cut. Sen. Nelson voted YES, but Sen. Martinez voted NO. Issues Raised by Senators Voting No

The legislation was partisan in nature -
FACT: HR 6331 received wide bi-partisan support with 129 Republicans in the House and 9 Republicans in the Senate voting in favor.
The process was flawed and did not allow for full debate -
FACT: Senators who voted against HR 6331 indicate that the process did not allow for floor debate or the ability to amend the legislation since the House had adjourned for the holiday. In fact, any legislation that would have passed after the House adjourned could not be addressed until the House returns after the holiday. The 10.6 percent cut would still go into effect.
The President would veto the legislation -
FACT: The Statement of Administration Position issued by the White House indicated that "senior advisors would recommend" the President veto the measure. This formulation gives the Administration some room to maneuver. With the strong bipartisan support of the House and an equally strong message in the Senate's cloture vote, the President could be persuaded to sign the measure.

CMS Medicare Payment Freeze
It is also important to understand the action taken by CMS. The freeze does not mean that the current rate of payment continues until July 15 - only that claims for physician services rendered from July 1 until July 15 are held pending the outcome of legislative activity. If HR 6331 does not pass before July 15, payments by CMS from this period will be processed at the rate of 10.6 percent below the current rate.

Please call Senator Martinez immediately and speak to the legislative assistant for health issues. Please let him or her know that you are disappointed with the Senator's vote and ask for the Senator's support when the bill comes back to the floor after the July 4 recess. You should call the office nearest to you from the list below. You may also copy this alert, give it to your patients, and ask your patients to call Sen. Martinez. WE MUST SAVE MEDICARE!!

Offices of US Senator Mel Martinez:
Orlando: 407-254-2573
Jacksonville: 904-398-8586
Pensacola: 850-433-2603
Coral Gables: 305-444-8332
Tampa: 813-977-6450
Naples: 239-774-3367

Please send any responses you may receive from an office to Erica Fischer, efischer@aafp.org.

Unite for Change NEWSLETTER Monday July 7, 2008

Doc from Orlando, FL — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:28:34 EDT

Barack Obama said in a statement. “And there’s no more powerful tool for grass-roots organizing than the Internet.” "Mr. Hughes, 24, was one of four founders of Facebook. In early 2007, he left the company to work in Chicago on Senator Obama’s new-media campaign."Meanwhile:"..McCainSpace and part of JohnMcCain.com, is “virtually impossible to use and appears largely abandoned,” said Adam Ostrow, the editor of Mashable, a blog about social networking."July 7, 2008The Facebooker Who Friended Obama By BRIAN STELTER

Last November, Mark Penn, then the chief strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton, derisively said Barack Obama’s supporters “look like Facebook.”

Chris Hughes takes that as a compliment.

Mr. Hughes, 24, was one of four founders of Facebook. In early 2007, he left the company to work in Chicago on Senator Obama’s new-media campaign. Leaving behind his company at such a critical time would appear to require some cognitive dissonance: political campaigns, after all, are built on handshakes and persuasion, not computer servers, and Mr. Hughes has watched, sometimes ruefully, as Facebook has marketed new products that he helped develop.

“It was overwhelming for the first two months,” he recalled. “It took a while to get my bearings.”

But in fact, working on the Obama campaign may have moved Mr. Hughes closer to the center of the social networking phenomenon, not farther away.

The campaign’s new-media strategy, inspired by popular social networks like MySpace and Facebook, has revolutionized the use of the Web as a political tool, helping the candidate raise more than two million donations of less than $200 each and swiftly mobilize hundreds of thousands of supporters before various primaries.

The centerpiece of it all is My.BarackObama.com, where supporters can join local groups, create events, sign up for updates and set up personal fund-raising pages. “If we did not have online organizing tools, it would be much harder to be where we are now,” Mr. Hughes said.

Mr. Obama, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, credits the Internet’s social networking tools with a “big part” of his primary season success.

“One of my fundamental beliefs from my days as a community organizer is that real change comes from the bottom up,” Mr. Obama said in a statement. “And there’s no more powerful tool for grass-roots organizing than the Internet.”

Now Mr. Hughes and other campaign aides are applying the same social networking tools to try to win the general election. This time, however, they must reach beyond their base of young, Internet-savvy supporters.

By early April, Mr. Obama’s new-media team was already planning for the election by expanding its online phone-calling technology. In mid-May, to keep volunteers busy as the primaries played out, the campaign started a nationwide voter registration drive. And in late June, after Senator Clinton bowed out of the race, the millions of people on the Obama campaign’s e-mail lists were asked to rally her supporters as well as undecided voters by hosting “Unite for Change” house parties across the country. Nearly 4,000 parties were held.

The campaign’s successful new-media strategy is already being studied as a playbook for other candidates, including the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.

“Their use of social networks will guide the way for future campaigns,” Peter Daou, Mrs. Clinton’s Internet director, said at a recent political technology conference. Mr. Daou called Mr. Obama’s online outreach “amazing.”

The heart of the campaign’s online strategy is a teeming corner of Mr. Obama’s headquarters two blocks from the Chicago River, a crowded space that looks more like an Internet start-up company than a campaign war room. During a visit in late May, a bottle of whiskey sat, almost empty, atop a refrigerator (there had been plenty of victories to celebrate lately, a staff member explained).

Sitting amid a cluster of cubicles, Mr. Hughes, whose title is “online organizing guru,” handles the My.BarackObama.com site, which is known within the campaign as MyBo. Other staff members maintain Mr. Obama’s presence on Facebook (where he has one million supporters), purchase online advertising, respond to text messages from curious voters, produce videos and e-mail millions of supporters.

Before helping build Facebook, the social network of choice for 70 million Americans, the fresh-faced and sandy-haired Mr. Hughes, who grew up in Hickory, N.C., went to boarding school at Andover, where he joined the Democratic Club and the student government. In the fall of 2002, he went to Harvard, where he majored in history and literature. He and a roommate, Mark Zuckerberg — now the chief executive of Facebook — shared a room that was “just about as small as my cubby at work is these days,” Mr. Hughes said.

Mr. Zuckerberg and another Facebook co-founder dropped out in 2004 to work on the site full time, but Mr. Hughes graduated in 2006 before venturing to Silicon Valley.

In February 2007, after showing interest in Mr. Obama’s candidacy and being reassured that the campaign’s new-media operation would be more than “just a couple Internet guys in a corner,” he left Facebook, where he has stock options that are potentially worth tens of millions of dollars, and moved to Chicago, where he lives — and dresses — like any other recent college graduate. “Cabs are a luxury,” he said.

As supporters started to join MyBo in early 2007, Mr. Hughes brought a growth strategy, borrowed from Facebook’s founding principles: keep it real, and keep it local. Mr. Hughes wanted Mr. Obama’s social network to mirror the off-line world the same way that Facebook seeks to, because supporters would foster more meaningful connections by attending neighborhood meetings and calling on people who were part of their daily lives. The Internet served as the connective tissue.

While many candidates reach their supporters through the Web, the social networking features of MyBo allow supporters to reach one another.

Mr. Hughes’s abrupt shift from Facebook pioneer to campaign aide was not easy. In the lonely months before the Iowa caucus, he grappled with the small scale of his new social network, measuring its membership by the thousands rather than the millions he was accustomed to. He had to learn mystifying political shorthand (VAN, for voter file management; N.P.G., for the donor and volunteer database) and figure out how campaigns operate. Eventually, he grew comfortable.

At first, his main focus was a single state. Throughout last summer and fall, the prevailing attitude was, “What can you do for Iowa today?” Mr. Hughes recalled.

Mr. Obama’s win in the Iowa caucuses drove new supporters to the MyBo site in droves. Using the campaign’s online toolkit, energized volunteers laid the groundwork for field workers.

So far, MyBo has attracted 900,000 members, although aides play down the raw numbers.

“The point is not to have a million people” signed up, said Joe Rospars, the campaign’s new-media director, although he does expect to have well over a million signed up on MyBo by November. “The point is to be able to chop up that million-person list into manageable chunks and organize them.”

In some primary and caucus states, volunteers used the Internet to start organizing themselves months before the campaign staff arrived.

In Texas on March 4, Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote, but Mr. Obama came away with a lead of five delegates, thanks to a caucus win. Caucuses are a test of organizational strength, and Mr. Obama’s team used database technology to track 100,000 Texas volunteers and put them to work. This permitted campaign staff members to “skip Steps 1, 2 and 3,” Mr. Hughes said.

So maybe the Obama core does “look like Facebook.” Mr. Penn’s remark, made at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Iowa and reported by The Politico, was cited by both Mr. Rospars and Mr. Hughes in separate interviews.

Virtual phone banks greatly benefited Mr. Obama. During the primaries, volunteers could sign in online, receive a list of phone numbers and make calls from home. The volunteers made hundreds of thousands of calls last winter and spring. At the end of June, the Obama campaign began carefully opening up its files of voters to online supporters, making it easier to find out which Democratic-leaning neighbors to call and which registered-independent doors to knock on.

One goal is to drive online energy into in-person support. From January to April, for instance, the Obama campaign spent $3 million on online advertising to steer would-be voters to their polling places with online tools that tell people where to vote. The locators “are hard to build, but once you build them, they have a very high return on investment,” Mr. Hughes said.

Much of the technology in the Obama toolbox was pioneered by Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign. “We were like the Wright brothers,” said Joe Trippi, the Web mastermind of the Dean campaign. The Obama team, he added, “skipped Boeing, Mercury, Gemini — they’re Apollo 11, only four years later.”

Mr. Rospars and other former Dean aides formed a consulting firm, Blue State Digital, to refine their techniques. The Obama campaign purchased the backbone of MyBo from Blue State and has set out to improve it. “It’s still TheFacebook,” Mr. Hughes said, comparing Mr. Obama’s current site to the earliest and narrowest version of Facebook. “It’s still very, very rough around the edges.”

Last month, acknowledging that attacks during the general election are likely to be more vociferous, the Obama campaign tried to capitalize on its network by creating a Web page, FightTheSmears.com. Through that site, the campaign hopes that supporters will act as a truth squad working to untangle accusations, as bloggers have informally in other campaigns and as many did when CBS reported on President Bush’s National Guard service in 2004.

People who have posted on the site have already taken up five rumors, including that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States (a birth certificate was displayed) and that he does not put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance (the site links to a YouTube video of him doing so).

Republican strategists say, wryly, that Senator McCain’s 2000 campaign was innovative in its use of technology. (The candidate held a groundbreaking virtual fund-raiser and enabled supporters to sign up online.) But that was back when Mr. McCain ran as an outsider; as the presumptive nominee, he is no longer an upstart. His social network, called McCainSpace and part of JohnMcCain.com, is “virtually impossible to use and appears largely abandoned,” said Adam Ostrow, the editor of Mashable, a blog about social networking.

By all accounts, Mr. McCain is not the BlackBerry-wielding politician that Mr. Obama is. But he has given credit to what he calls Mr. Obama’s “excellent use of the Internet,” saying at a news conference last month that “we are working very hard at that as well.” The McCain campaign recently reintroduced its Web site and hired new bloggers to broaden its online presence.

Patrick Ruffini, a Republican strategist who was the Webmaster for President Bush’s 2004 campaign, said that a campaign’s culture largely determines its digital strategy. The McCain campaign “could hire the best people, build the best technology, and adopt the best tactics” on the Internet. “But it would have to be in sync with the candidate and the campaign,” Mr. Ruffini said.

Mr. Hughes and other Obama aides say that their candidate gravitates naturally toward social networking, so much so that he even filled out his own Facebook profile two years ago. Mr. Obama has pledged that if he is elected, he will hire a chief technology officer; Mr. Hughes’s face lights up at the thought.

Other administrations have adapted to the Internet, “but they haven’t valued it,” he said.

Mr. Hughes has not decided whether to return to Facebook, and the decision does hinge in part on the fate of the campaign. But the lessons he has learned in political life seem to reinforce those learned in Silicon Valley.

“You can have the best technology in the world,” he said, “but if you don’t have a community who wants to use it and who are excited about it, then it has no purpose.”

Unite for Change NEWSLETTER 7-6-08

Doc from Orlando, FL — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:21:32 EDT

Articles concerning 2 very important but yet very different factors that can determine the winner of the Presidential elections in November.

1. The Impact of Voter Registration in Georgia. (We need to do the same in Florida!)

2. McCain Battles a Nemesis, the Teleprompter.

The Impact Of Voter Registrationby Amanda ScottSaturday, July 05, 2008 at 01:58 PM

Yesterday the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had an article about the massive increase of voters in Georgia....

The number of Georgia voters has increased by 300,000 since the first of the year, with more than 4.7 million people on the active rolls for the July 15 primary, according to data released Tuesday.

Local registration officials have seen the number of people signing up to vote at a pace that picks up with each passing month.

The bump is significant, said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist. As a comparison, he pointed out that there were 500,000 names added to the active voting rolls in the three years between the presidential election in 2004 and Jan. 1 of this year. "That is more than a 20 percent increase, so more Georgians are getting themselves signed up to vote," Bullock.

In the July 15 primary, Georgia voters will select nominees for a U.S. Senate seat, several U.S. House seats, the state Legislature and various local elections.

Bullock believes, however, that some of the increase before the July voting can be attributed more to enthusiasm for the November presidential election and the presumptive nominees, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

"Obama is getting people to show up," Bullock said.

According to numbers released Tuesday, there were more than 4.7 million names on the state's active voter list as of June 16, the last day to register for this month's primary. That number is almost 39,000 more than it was two weeks earlier and almost 60,000 more than on May 31.

While Georgia was virtually ignored during the 2004 presidential race because the state was solidly Republican, both campaigns say it could be competitive this fall.

Obama is already running television ads, and the campaign said it has about 75 paid staffers and hundreds of volunteers in the state focusing just on voter registration and turnout. They are going door-to-door, often in their own neighborhoods, handing out mail-in voter registration applications. Their focus is on recruiting African-American and young voters.

...Both parties are predicting voter turnout in November that will top 90 percent in some counties because of enthusiasm for the presidential race.

Georgia is just one example of how our supporters are making this campaign their own. By attending voter registration events, you can help to turn a red state blue, bring first time voters into this movement, and help build a support base for Barack.

July 6, 2008McCain Battles a Nemesis, the Teleprompter By MARK LEIBOVICH

LAS VEGAS —Senator John McCain was performing relatively smoothly as he unveiled his energy plan.

He managed to limit the mechanical hand chops and weirdly timed smiles that can often punctuate his speeches. He delivered his lines with an ease that suggested a momentary peace with his longtime nemesis, the teleprompter. (He relied on a belt-and-suspenders approach, with text scrolling down screens to his left and right, and on a big TV set in front of him.)

But when Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came to the intended sound bite of his speech — the part about reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil — he hit a slick.

“I have set before the American people an energy plan, the Lex-eegton Project,” Mr. McCain said, drawing a quick breath and correcting himself. “The Lex-ing-ton Proj-ect,” he said slowly. “The Lexington Project,” he repeated. “Remember that name.”

In a town meeting in Cincinnati the next day, Mr. McCain would again slip up on the name of the Massachusetts town, where, he noted, “Americans asserted their independence once before.” He called it “the Lexiggdon Project” and twice tried to fix his error before flipping the name (“Project Lexington”) in subsequent references.

Mr. McCain’s battle of Lexington is part of a struggle he is engaged in every day. A politician who has thrived in the give-and-take settings of campaign buses, late-night TV couches and town meetings, he now is trying to meet the more formal speaking demands of a general election campaign.

By his own admission, Mr. McCain is not a great orator. He is ill-suited to lecterns, which often dwarf his small stature, and he tends to sound as if he is reading his lines, not speaking them. His shortcomings have been accentuated in a two-man race, particularly because the other man — Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee — can often dazzle on stage.

Mr. McCain and his advisers know that Mr. Obama’s ability to excite huge crowds will make for an inevitable podium mismatch for the older, softer-spoken Republican. “We’re going up against a guy who is off the charts,” said Mark Salter, Mr. McCain’s longtime Senate chief of staff and campaign adviser.

To better compete, Mr. McCain is undergoing a subtle but marked transition as a political performer, said aides and people who have watched him. As part of a staff shakeup that was announced Tuesday, he brought in a new adviser — Greg Jenkins, a former White House official and Fox News producer — who will oversee the producing and staging of Mr. McCain’s events. Mr. Jenkins is considered an expert at political stagecraft, oversaw many of President Bush’s appearances and served as executive director of the 2004 inaugural committee.

Mr. McCain is working closely with aides like Brett O’Donnell, a former debate consultant for Mr. Bush, to improve his speech and performance. He is working to limit his verbal tangents and nonverbal tics. He is speaking less out of the sides of his mouth, which can produce a wiseguy twang reminiscent of the Penguin from the Batman stories, and he is relying less on his favorite semantic crutch — the phrase “my friends” — which he used repeatedly in his campaign appearances. He also appears to be trying to exercise restraint, advisers and campaign observers say, when speaking off the cuff, wisecracking in town meetings and criticizing his opponent. In recent weeks, for example, Mr. McCain seems to have reined in the sarcasm he has directed at Mr. Obama. (In May, for example, he said of his opponent, “With his very, very great lack of experience and knowledge of the issues, he’s been very successful.”)

Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, said, “There’s a danger of sarcasm becoming nastiness, and McCain seems to be conscious of that line.”

Some McCain loyalists say he needs to be left alone and not burdened by his staff’s calculations about how he should be acting or what he should saying.

“I think the depressingly self-absorbed McCain campaign machine needs to get out of the way,” said Mike Murphy, a longtime friend and media adviser who has no role in the current operation but who still talks to Mr. McCain every few days. “They need to just let McCain be McCain.”

The more careful McCain, said by some to be overly scripted, has received some withering critiques. “His rhetorical style can best be described as ‘tired mayonnaise,’ ” the comedian Stephen Colbert declared on “The Colbert Report” before inviting viewers to enter the “Make McCain Exciting Challenge.”

Peter Spaulding, the chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign in New Hampshire, said he recently saw a McCain speech on television that was “just atrocious.”

Dan Schnur, Mr. McCain’s communications chief during his 2000 presidential campaign, said, “Besides his convention speech, the only time I would even put him behind a podium at all between now and the end of the campaign is when he’s announcing a policy position.”

Mr. McCain’s advisers, who bristle at the idea that they are trying to transform the candidate, say that his lack of smoothness merely reinforces his reputation for authenticity.

“Voters are looking for credibility and are wary of polish,” said Mark McKinnon, a former consultant to Mr. McCain’s campaign. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter which candidate can more deftly read a teleprompter.”

Indeed, Mr. McCain and his advisers seem to be trying to present him as a kind of anti-Obama whose weaknesses as a political performer underscore his accessibility to regular voters.

“John doesn’t ever want to be something that he is not,” Mr. Salter said, including trying to pass himself off as a larger-than-life figure on stage. “There’s nothing in there about him that wants to be rarefied.”

Mr. McCain and his surrogates appear to be taking a page from the primary campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, which made a point of praising Mr. Obama’s speaking skills both to erase any expectation that she could match them and to imply that Mr. Obama was more of a performer than a leader. Nicolle Wallace, Mr. McCain’s new senior adviser, said the campaign would focus on having the candidate interact face to face with voters, “not from a center stage in the middle of a stadium.”

In an interview on his campaign plane, Mr. McCain said “my strongest environment is clearly the impromptu.” He added, “I don’t mean that in a way that denigrates Senator’s Obama’s speechmaking skills.”

He shrugged when asked whether he is improving as a speaker. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” he said. “It’s coming along.”

“I will continue to make mistakes,” he added.

He said he was trying to be “extra vigilant” about not giving unnecessary offense, knowing that the wisecracking humor that might charm cynical reporters might not do the same for earnest voters.

He sheepishly volunteered that he received complaints after a recent Newsweek profile of his wife, Cindy, said that he sometimes referred to her alma mater, the University of Southern California, as the University of Spoiled Children.

Mr. Salter bemoans the current environment, in which, he said, “the press creates the expectation that you better not stumble on a word, or tell a joke that Mr. Rogers wouldn’t tell, or you’re going to be in trouble.”

There are any number of Web videos of Mr. McCain to prove the point. They include the moment he playfully called a young man a “jerk” at a town-hall-style meeting in New Hampshire last year after he asked Mr. McCain if his age made him a candidate for Alzheimer’s disease in the White House (Mr. McCain typically uses jerk as a term of affection), or when he suggested to Jon Stewart on “The Daily

Show” that he brought him a special gift from Iraq — an improvised explosive device.

Small misstatements become instant YouTube fodder — as when Mr. McCain vowed to “veto every single beer” that included lawmakers’ pet spending projects (he meant “bill”) or when he said the government should have been able to deliver “bottled hot water” to dehydrated babies in New Orleans. (It is fortunate for Mr. McCain that there was no YouTube in the 1980s when he jokingly referred to the retirement community Leisure World as “Seizure World.”)

Mr. McCain speaks often about his love of the “give and take,” the “more informal settings where I think I’m at my best.”

“It’s not an ego thing,” he said, “just where I think I’m most effective.”

When asked if it would be possible to run “the town meeting campaign” that he credited with providing him a decisive victory in New Hampshire, where he held 102 such events, Mr. McCain said, “Absolutely.”

The ease with which he presided over such a gathering in Cincinnati on June 26 was strikingly different from the difficulties he had with his speech in Las Vegas the day before. “I believe that town-hall meetings are the essence of the process,” Mr. McCain said to an audience at Xavier University, gripping his microphone with two hands. He talked about why it is important to engage with people across the political spectrum: “conservatives and liberals and libertarians and vegetarians,” he said.

A downside to such meetings is that they can become forums for people to ask about anything, including parochial concerns. One student, for example, asked Mr. McCain what he would do to ensure that commercial airlines continued to operate out of the Cincinnati airport.

Mr. McCain managed to steer his answer to energy, the theme of the week. “This is the reason for Project Lexington,” he responded.

Unite for Change NEWSLETTER 7-3-08

Doc from Orlando, FL — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:00:35 EDT

Dear Friends,

Please donate money to the Obama for America campaign (www.barackobama.com). Give whatever you can afford, and on a regular basis if you can. Even though your grassroots efforts in Florida are critical, money is also needed to win the election in November. It is a race between Barack organizing and getting his message out to people who do not know him very well, versus McCain/Republican National Committee trying to turn off these people from Barack with negative smear ads. McCain may not be doing very well with contributions at this point, but the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the 527s have a lot of money on hand and are getting even more. We cannot allow the Republicans to smear Barack's image before the people really get to know him. We know that people readily get behind Barack when they get to know him and his vision better. So let us fund the Obama for America campaign to do a great job getting his message out first, before the negative stuff arrives.

Source: Serious TV add time has been bought starting this weekend in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan for spots going after Obama on matter(s) TBD.

Adds to run through July 15:
http://thepage.time.com/2008/07/02/battleground-state-tv-ads-to-target-obama/

July 02, 2008
Categories: Republicans

RNC plans ads in four states

Sources familiar with the media buys say the Republican National Committee has reserved advertising slots in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, large buys that could mark the first serious wave of televised attacks on Barack Obama.

Further details of the advertising plans were unavailable and an RNC spokesman said he was unaware of ad plans and of the substance of any planned attacks. John McCain and the Republican Party have stepped up efforts in recent days to portray Obama as a "typical" politician, and have accused him of changing his position on a range of key issues.

Obama is on the air in 18 states, and has been using his financial advantage to tell his preferred version of his biography, one that roots him in Kansas values and centrist political issues.

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A Call to Serve

by Laurin ManningWednesday, July 02, 2008 at 12:25 PM
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/laurinmanning/gGxsR7

Create new opportunities for Americans to serve--and tackle our national challenges:

As President, Barack Obama will expand AmeriCorps to 250,000 slots and make that increased service a vehicle to meet national goals like providing health care and education, fighting climate change and restoring our standing in the world.

He'll send more college graduates to teach and mentor our young people and call on Americans to join an Energy Corps to work on renewable energy projects in their communities. And he'll launch an initiative to give our veterans the training they need to succeed in the green jobs of the future.

Obama will also grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered, and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy.

Build service into education:

Barack Obama believes that we need to integrate service into education, so that young Americans are prepared to be active citizens. And Study after study shows that students who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely to maintain that service as adults.

Obama will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service.

To help accomplish that goal, Obama will require 100 hours of annual public service from every recipient of the $4,000 college tax credit that he's proposed. That bargain will ensure sure that college is affordable for every single American, while preparing our nation to compete in the 21st century.

Unite for Change NEWSLETTER 7-2-08

Doc from Orlando, FL — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:59:26 EDT

2 news articles and pictures below.1. East Indians endorse Obama; pledge to raise $10 M
2. Helping People Change Their Situation

East Indians endorse Obama; pledge to raise $10 M

Agencies

Posted online: Friday, June 27, 2008 at 1134 hrs IST

New York, June 26:

A leading organisation of Indian Americans that backed Hillary Clinton's White House bid has now extended support to triumphant Democratic candidate Barack Obama and pledged to raise USD 10 million, giving a major boost to his campaign for the November Presidential election.

'American Indians for Democrats' decided to endorse Obama to ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House in the next presidential elections, Chairman Sant Singh Chatwal said.

Chatwal said that his organisation plans to hold a major fund raiser for Obama in July where the Indian community would raise at least USD 10 million, thus making it the biggest such event for him.

Replying to a question, the leading hotelier said Indian Americans had been supporting Hillary Clinton but now that she had endorsed Obama, "there is no reason for them not to put their full weight behind him".

Earlier, the organisation had raised USD five million for Clinton's campaign.

Both Obama and Clinton were present at the function on Thursday where Chatwal formally endorsed Obama who warmly shook hands with him.

When Chatwal said the Indians Americans would raise at least USD 10 million, Obama said he was sure they would accomplish it.

Chatwal appealed to the Indian Americans to fully support Obama, asserting that he would take care of their concerns as also work closely with them in strengthening growing Indo-American relations.

Chatwal said Obama's office had been trying to contact him to ensure that the Indian American supports him but they were awaiting Clinton's endorsement of the Illinois Senator who has scripted history by being the first African American Presidential nominee of a major US party.

The growing influence of the Indian community with its members occupying important position in media and major corporations has led the Presidential candidates to actively seek their support and Obama too was visibly happy to get the endorsement at the event covered by mainstream media.

Obama, meanwhile, told financial supporters of his former Democratic White House rival Clinton that he would personally donate money to help pay off her debt.

Obama said he would personally contribute 2,300 dollars to Clinton, the most he can offer under federal law, to help towards cancelling campaign debts of 22.5 million dollars she incurred during her failed Presidential nomination bid.

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"Helping People Change Their Situation"
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/amandascott/gG5x4Mby Amanda ScottTuesday, July 01, 2008 at 07:52 PM

Lucas Fleischer is on the ground in Ohio, helping lay the groundwork for the state's general election campaign. He was in Zanesville this morning to speak with the volunteers of the Eastside Community Ministry.

It was a sunny day here in Zanesville, a town in Southeastern Ohio, where Barack came to talk about the place where faith and community meet. The Eastside Community Ministry seems to be that very place.

Eastside, which provides a food pantry, emergency relief, clothing bank, and special outreach programs along with its flagship youth tutoring program, is exactly the kind of faith-based organization Barack was talking about in his speech today when he called for "an all hands on deck approach" to solving some of today's challenges. As he has said in the past, Barack believes that people don't want the government to solve their problems, but they would like to feel like the government is trying to help.

Sam, a volunteer at Eastside, described a similar approach here...

We're not attempting to give a handout, but training... to help people change their situation.

Mike, who volunteers here with Sam and teaches physical education at a local school, said that approach is useful in a place like Zanesville...

It has a small town feel, but it's big enough to have a little niche for everybody... diverse, with wealthy people as well as low-income... I see doctors' kids playing alongside kids who wear the same clothes to school every day.

Their life skills program with training in finance, health and nutrition, and even laundry, attempts to offer people all the skills they need to fight multi-generational poverty in a town that has been hard hit.

While Barack was here to talk about his support of faith-based programs, he stopped in to check on the kids who are part of the youth tutoring program. Sam told us:

They're excited. Some of them are not going to wash their hands any time soon [after shaking hands with Barack]. He made those kids' day, that's for sure. If not year.

A few of the volunteers at Eastside are Republicans, and even joked about not wanting to be interviewed for fear of getting kicked out of the Young Republicans Club, but when asked about Barack coming here today, one said:

The more public politicians talk about these issues, the better it will get... When he entered the race, I went to his website and learned all about him. And I was excited by the spirit of what he said. If he does what he says he'll do, and keeps talking about the things he's talking about, I'll probably vote for him in November.

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