Watching big insurance and the ole school Republicans battle to do away with reforms, and democrats, and just about everything and everyone against them brought me to research a little past history. Populist movements aren't new, but their ability to last and to be effective is. Never before have everyday people had the ability to align themselves, communicate, and act as one, as is evident today. Even wiith vast amounts of corporate money being spent on PAC'S, lobbiest's, cable news networks, politicians, and judges; Today, don't be seen attending some elitist style lobbying party these days, not with the internet frely flowing (especially Facebook, myspace, and twitter)youwill be on it. For "It" has changed the world of power brokering, meaning all that money and power that was being spent in purchasing government has gone to waste. It'sneeverbeen more evident than an evening with cable news tv. The populist movement that removed the GOP and their tin-eared breatheren. An historical example of populist movements would be Sid Hatfield, yes of the Hatfield-McCoy fame, and father of the mine workers union, ( Sid Hatfield (1893–1921) was Police Chief of Matewan, West Virginia during the Battle of Matewan, a shootout that followed a series of evictions carried out by detectives from the Baldwin-Felts agency. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Hatfield ").
Chief Hatfield who came to the aid of the poorblue collar city folk and tried to prevent the mine corporation's privately hired detectives from evicting homeowners,(for things like union activity, political adversion, and self determination) was murdered on the courthouse steps along with friend Ed Chambers, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9980 .and became a Martyr. No charges have ever been brought for this public murder.
Sid seemed to have the ability to bring people together in a common goal, and the will to stand firm for what was right. The mega corporations of that time, in control of the town, county, state and federal government wouldn't have this, after all, they were bought and paid for. Of course, there was no internet at that time and certainly a huge corporation's spent money, was money you could count on forever. Today, big Corporation's and their recipients (i.e. GOP Today) appear to be showing the signs of disillusionment over this fact, that is the lasting effect of a financial power base being in demise and no longer in control. "Just can't seem to buy them anymore I suppose".
Anyhow, Sid Hatfield turned a populist movement into reality back then, especially as a Martyr; The West Virginia Mine War ("southern operators, closely linked financially with the big steel and railroad empires, had the statehouse at Charleston and most of the law on their side" (Bush/Cheney years?) http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1974/5/1974_5_58.shtml.
The union effort, atempts to forbid private detectives killing, arresting and beating locals all came to a climax after the murder of Police Chief Hatfield,(Blair Mountain) and comments by Frank Keeney speaksof such; "You’ve got Uncle Sam on your side now, and he won’t let you down. You can fight the government of West Virginia, but by God you can’t fight the government of the United States.”
Makes you wonder if FOX news and Glen Beck ever read this story.., or maybe they have? After all, democrats coming together have made insignificant, the republican machine and left them in dis-array, CEO's fired, Big Insurance now being leveled, politicians like the magnificent Grayson speaking up & out. Jobs and money coming back to our country.
THANKS INTERNET & SID HATFIELD
My Inauguration Experience: A Wonderful Experience In spite of the Cold I have always wondered what it was like when so many people saw Martin Luther King gave his ‘I have a Dream Speech’. On Jan 20, I was able to capture that feeling.
January 20 was a cold day. I arrived by bus. I was located far in the pack on the hill next to the Washington Monument. It was so cold my hands were numb; I guess I should have worn knit gloves rather than leather. I didn't notice when I dropped the hand warmer I paid 5 dollars for and I did not notice when I dropped the inaugural program I paid 10 dollars for from someone selling them in the mall.
I and so many others around me ended up being separated by the groups we came with. I turned around and saw my Aunt and cousin and in a few seconds of turning my head we were all separated. So looking around in despair I knew we could meet up at the bus, so I pushed further. As a matter of fact at that moment I ran into a block when an armor truck needed to inch through the crowd. As the crowd moved out of its way I like so many got behind it and inch through as it cleared a path to move forward through the crowd. That was how it was you were either moving along with a group of people are you were ducking and turning as you were following someone in military uniform or someone else who was able to dive and weave in and out through the crowd. What an adventure!
In spite of the cold it was a wonderful day. When I looked around me it was as if I stepped into another moment in time. I realized what it must have felt like during various times in history when people were able to embrace significant changes. The streets were similar to the ones you see in movies about wars. The people looked like they wore everything they owned to keep warm. You couldn't see the ground before you and the person in front of you had to tell you step up and step down. If there was a gate I often ran into because there were so many people you couldn't see that far ahead. People were climbing over fences just to get closer to the screens. Where I was on the hill was about a four ft climb up just to get closer to the screen. Oh I tried several routes to get to further screens up along the mall, but I kept running into a wall of people.I
think about all those people and I see the descendent of slaves, refuges, Jews, Christians, and any other group that were once oppressed because of just who they are. On that hill I thought I was in a forest, because there were so many of us up there. I did not notice the children playing on blankets on the ground until I was next to them. People were in trees and on the top of buildings (of course before the police told them to step down). This was a Pilgrimage in history for hope and change.
I'll never forget when a man said, he had to move because a Teenage girl in a wheel chair stood up on two broken legs. Of course people on the hill jokingly chimed ‘Barack Obama could heal the sick’, 'Barack could heal the lame'. I'll tell you something else that was funny; imagine my surprise when I arrived home my whole hair was frosted white. Immediately I sprayed some oil sheen on it. I love to gain wisdom but not like that. I guess it was just the cold air of Inauguration Day.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Today the Obama Transition Team released the review of Obama Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office. Download a PDF of the memo.
There isn't an applicable campaign slogan (that already exists) that I can think of yet that can explain this. Let's start with "Restoring America's Promise." That's the reason why Barack was elected President in the first place. He rose from this toxic political climate in Illinois by doing what may be considered unorthodox in Chicago. For that, I truly commend the President-elect and those who serve with him out of Illinois.
However, Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois is really dragging the flow of progress. He's being investigated for possibly trying to sell President-elect Obama's Senate seat. Everyone from the President-elect to every Democratic senator in Congress to the Illinois attorney general is asking--no demanding that he resign. And he's not going to do it. Do we have another Ted Stevens in our midst? Could he be our Ted Stevents?
Here's a slogan that I hope catches on: GO BLAGO, GO HOME!
Really, do they really think nine people are going to overturn 64 million people...again?
Come on, y'all, and especially Mr. Donofrio and Justice Thomas. The State of Hawaii repeatedly said--one of these statements from its Republican governor--that Obama's birth certificate was real and it is in a vault in Honolulu. The Obama campaign released a certified copy and was certified legit by left, right, and center-wing groups.
Then there's the argument that he's British...or Kenyan through the British Exclusionary Act. Uhhh...wasn't his mother a U.S. citizen? This covers the citizenship-by-birth issue. If either parent is an American citizen, so is the child. Then...ahem...HE WAS BORN IN HONOLULU, WHICH IS THE CAPITAL OF A U.S. STATE. According to current U.S. law, any child born within the U.S. is a citizen with full rights. Third, the Supreme Court deals with U.S. (and not British or Kenyan or Indonesian) law. The British Exclusionary Act does not apply in the United States. And Obama was not running for UK Prime Minister.
This pulls out to one conclusion: DONOFRIO V. WELLS IS A BUNCH OF CRAP. SHUT IT DOWN NOW.
1: start chanting it at Carolina Gamecocks games. God, we need a new chant, and the football team over there lacks motivation. Maybe if the fans (who were mostly supporters of Mackie C) get on board, not see it as a political ploy, and use it to cheer on the team in terms of "Yes, We Can...win the SEC" or "Yes We Can...Beat Clemson,"-- I'm saying...if it worked for the Democrats, it can work for the Gamecocks. Maybe we can finally get some wins against Florida or Clemson (lol!)
However, let's be serious here for a second, too. Anyone not feeling the possibility of pulling Democrats representing red states into Obama's cabinet? People keep saying Clyburn may be tapped to head HUD. I believe he said he wasn't going to take it. I think I know why:
1. Clyburn represents one of two Democratic districts in South Carolina, the reddest state this side of the Mississippi River. SC is almost entirely controlled by the GOP, except for the Department of Education and the fifth and sixth Congressional Districts.
2. Should Clyburn (or Spratt, for that matter) take such a job, SC's "benevolent" governor, Mark Sanford, will "very kindly" appoint a member of his party to take his place, therefore he will introduce minority rule in that district--thus hogging more GOP territory. Now ain't that "sweet"? Of course I'm being sarcastic.
3. Therefore to make sure Democrats in South Carolina (and the majority in his district) are heard--and to safeguard the Democrats' headlock on the House, Clyburn must stay put until we get more Dems interested in running for office. Plain and simple.
By Stephen HessSpecial to The Washington Post
The first time you are addressed as Mr. President, you will realize that your tomorrows are never again going to be like your yesterdays. Take the simple matter of words, for instance.
On Nov. 16, 1992, President-elect Bill Clinton gave robust support for moving quickly to lift the ban on homosexuals in the military, a second-tier promise in a campaign that was about "the economy, stupid." Clinton later wrote that he was unprepared for the emotional response to his words. His presidency hit the ground stumbling. You also will find that your words, as never before, have consequences.
Presidential transitions have been part of my life for nearly half a century. So, Mr. President-elect, what follows are five tips for avoiding political minefields on the way to your inauguration.
You are about to be besieged by proposals to reorganize government.
But always keep in mind that reorganizations come with costs, and not merely the cost of new stationery. Congressional committees will not take kindly to matters that may alter their jurisdictions. Changes within agencies create confusion for workers, if not outright hostility.
When President-elect John F. Kennedy went to the White House to meet President Dwight D. Eisenhower on Dec. 6, 1960, Eisenhower warned his successor, "Avoid any reorganization until you become well acquainted with the problem."
On taking office, Kennedy promptly disbanded Eisenhower's elaborate national security arrangements, considering them too bureaucratic. When confronted with the Bay of Pigs crisis, he found himself without a properly functioning advisory body.
There is also a lesson about listening. Those leaving government, even if of the opposition party, are usually anxious to pass along advice. The problem is that the incoming people are often too impatient to listen.
There are folks who have spent tremendous energy trying to advance your cause and now want jobs. It would be grand if they were all experienced in government management. But take note of the trail left by the friends of Jimmy Carter.
Of the top eight White House positions, President-elect Carter gave seven to fellow Georgians, only one with experience in Washington. Carter said what he most needed were aides "who were compatible with each other and who were loyal to me." His first legislative effort "alienated about as many members of Congress that you can possibly do," according to budget director Bert Lance.
Kennedy, on the other hand, was probably the most skilled at finding appropriate positions for his loyalists, adjusting duties to their capacities and balancing insignificant responsibilities with other rewards.
You will find no shortage of applicants willing to sacrifice for high-salaried government jobs.
Yet when seeking the right people for the top jobs, prepare to be surprised. President-elect Reagan was turned down by six of his first Cabinet choices, President-elect Nixon by four. Only Eisenhower claimed he was accepted by everyone.
A case history: In the 2000 transition, Paul O'Neill met with President-elect Bush and Vice President-elect Cheney and outlined all the reasons he should not be appointed Treasury secretary. Two years later, President Bush fired O'Neill for exactly those reasons.
Case history No. 2: President-elect Clinton on making Mack McLarty his chief of staff: "He told me he would prefer another job more suited to his business background. Nevertheless, I pressed Mack to accept the position." McLarty was not a successful chief of staff, but he stayed in the administration and successfully completed a number of important international economic transactions.
The moral of the stories: Those who say no usually have a good reason, even if you think otherwise.
When a nomination is in trouble, count votes and move quickly if you don't have enough of them.
The worst case was the nomination of John Tower, then a former senator from Texas, as secretary of defense. Bush 41 would not fold and became the first incoming president to be denied a Cabinet member of his choice. The best case: Bush 43 replaced labor secretary nominee Linda Chavez within two days of a controversy surfacing over her dealings with an illegal immigrant and was given more credit for acting expeditiously than blame for making a flawed appointment.
Here's my last piece of gratuitous advice -- although it will be hotly challenged by Bill Clinton:
Never give major public policy responsibility to someone you cannot fire.
Stephen Hess is senior fellow emeritus in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of "What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect."
By Dan Payne
WITH 99 percent of this remarkable campaign now behind us, we in the political class have learned some valuable lessons.
Candidates get the campaigns they want. John McCain is no better than his campaign. He's responsible for what comes out of his mouth. McCain's campaign was sloppy, erratic, ugly, feckless, and rife with last-ditch recriminations. Barack Obama's was disciplined, poised, seamless, and powerful.
Never call your running mate a "whack job." McCain's spinners claim solidarity with Sarah Palin, but it's not a good sign when an unnamed top McCain aide tells a reporter that she is "a whack job."
A bad VP pick can be costly. According to Howard Fineman of Newsweek, of 70 or so politicians, newspapers, and pundits who shifted from McCain to Obama, 38 said they did so in part because of Palin. The New York Times poll shows 59 percent of voters now believe she is unprepared for the job.
Women aren't suckers. They will not support a female candidate just because she's a woman. Palin is ditzy, unaware, mean-spirited, and embarrassing.
The endless primaries helped Obama. They hardened the candidate, broadened his fundraising and volunteer bases, and let the country get used to the idea of a black president.
Public financing of presidential elections is over. Obama had said he'd limit his general election spending to $84 million in public presidential funds. He reversed himself and raised $150 million in September - with an average contribution of $86. Meanwhile, McCain took the $84 million, criticized Obama, and got no credit for abiding by the McCain-Feingold spending reform law.
Obama's 3-D chess game. Obama has so much money, he's playing 3-D chess while McCain is playing checkers. Obama used his TV dollars to force McCain to resign in Michigan, while he's moving in North Carolina and has checkmate in Virginia.
Crisis reveals character. Obama responded slowly, but wisely, to the Wall Street crisis. His press conferences revealed a calm, confident, reassuring, and - yes - presidential manner.
McCain misread the severity of the crisis ("The fundamentals of the economy are strong."), pretended to suspend his campaign to "help" in Washington, did nothing, then flew to the first debate in time to lose it.
Late-night comedy kills. Palin was the butt of a running joke on "Saturday Night Live," and a daily target for Jon Stewart. One of David Letterman's Top 10 lists was Excuses why Palin took $150,000 worth of new clothes: "Need to look good for the Russians who can see me in Alaska."
The Clintons aren't invincible. Hillary went from favorite to tenacious underdog but ultimately fell short. Bill sullied his reputation with African-Americans and thereby helped Obama unify the black community.
War can be fatal to Democrats. No Democratic senator who voted for the Iraq war survived the primaries. Clinton's vote to go to war, followed by her stubborn refusal to admit she'd been wrong, gave Obama a chance to seize the liberal flag and claim first place in anti-war Iowa.
Don't put your campaign headquarters in DC. Obama's and Bill Clinton's first campaign headquarters were in Chicago and Little Rock, respectively. Neither suffered from Washington-style leaks, backstabbing, and blame games that haunted McCain's and Hillary's DC-centric campaigns.
Answering every attack is not mandatory. Obama responded when an attack looked damaging. But no matter how many times McCain linked him to Bill Ayers, tax-and-spend, and socialism, the Obama campaign answered that Americans need healthcare, jobs, and a middle-class tax cut.
If the incumbent president of your party is despised, distance yourself from him. But do it before the final week.
Americans want to believe. How else do you explain crowds of 100,000 in St. Louis and 75,000 in Kansas City, Denver, and Portland, Ore.?
The Internet beckons. Campaigns everywhere will try to mimic Obama's success with the Web. Now all they need is a brilliant, charismatic candidate.
Lie down with Schmidt and you'll get up with sleaze. Steve Schmidt, a Karl Rove thug, took over the McCain campaign after the primaries. McCain took his advice and lost the press and the voters.
The final narrative: poised beats erratic. Obama is poised for a big win Tuesday.
Dan Payne is a Boston-area media consultant who has worked for Democratic candidates around the country. He does political analysis for WBUR radio.
GROVE CITY, Ohio — Central Ohio's landfill authority is powering a few of its vehicles by turning trash into gas.
A month ago, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio began producing fuel from the methane that's naturally given off by rotting garbage at its dump outside of Columbus.
Officials say the landfill's new gas-producing facility is capable of processing 300,000 gallons — enough to possibly fuel Franklin County's entire fleet of 400 vehicles.
A California company plans to invest $14 million to boost capacity even further. The landfill's director says that considering how much methane is given off by the dump's waste, the landfill could produce 10 times as much fuel.
Officials hope the fuel will eventually be used in local buses and garbage trucks.
___
Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com
AS THE presidential campaign enters its final weeks, John McCain resembles a journeyman boxer, behind on every scorecard and struggling desperately to land a knockout punch.
His lurching pursuit of a nimble rival has led to some jarring shifts between McCain's dueling personas, Johnny Be Good and Mack the Knife.
Speaking at the Alfred E. Smith dinner last Thursday, McCain was hilarious and high-minded, his praise for his rival the picture of gentlemanly grace.
How curious, then, that at the same time, automated calls paid for in part by the McCain campaign were highlighting Barack Obama's distant relationship with former 1960s radical and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.
Most voters are smart enough to see through that attempt at guilt by association. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 60 percent of likely voters say that relationship is not a legitimate issue.
Still, as any flimflam artist knows, you can fool some of the people some of the time - particularly with robo calls that deliver this mendacious message: "You need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the US Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home, and killed Americans."
Why, a skeptic could be forgiven for suspecting the intent was to gull the unwary into thinking Obama had actually worked with Ayers during his Weather Underground days. Actually, their association, which the nonpartisan truth squad FactCheck.org notes was "never very close," started decades later, in the 1990s. It included involvement with two nonprofit organizations and an event at Ayers's home during Obama's first state Senate campaign, in 1995.
In endorsing Obama on Sunday, former secretary of state Colin Powell decried attempts to use Ayers to taint Obama, aptly describing it as "demagoguery."
McCain friend and former strategist John Weaver tells me he's "disappointed" by the tactic. "The focus here should be on the economy," Weaver says. "That's what people are talking about."
It's hardly McCain's only attempt to land a roundhouse right. In another, McCain and Sarah Palin are suggesting that Obama favors socialism because he wants to raise income taxes on the wealthy and offer a tax break for the middle class and the less well-to-do.
Now, it's true that if Obama gets his way, upper-earners would help fund a tax cut for workers of more modest means, many of whom don't pay any income tax. (My view is that, given our huge federal deficit, proposals for big, permanent tax cuts by either candidate are irresponsible.) However, the tax cut in question would go only to workers who pay federal payroll (Social Security and Medicare) taxes; no one would get back more than he paid in those taxes.
Certainly it's quintessential silliness - conservative talk-radio silliness, even - to equate that $65 billion plan with socialism, a philosophy that calls for state ownership of the means of production and state distribution of national income. The Bush administration's emergency intervention in the financial markets, which McCain supported, is a much larger step in that direction.
Even someone as accomplished at the politics of convenience as Mitt Romney balked at McCain's description. "That's not the word I'd use," he told CNN.
As he flails away, McCain is adopting a tactic, if not the exact words, Romney did use in his 2002 gubernatorial bid: warning against turning all branches of government over to the Democrats.
Given the recent Republican record, traction there may be hard to generate. The Bush administration, after all, is going out like the Titanic. And as for the GOP reign in Congress, well, here's how Ron Kaufman, White House political director under President George H.W. Bush, puts it: "In 1994 Republicans said, give us control of Congress and we will govern wisely, we will tax less and have smaller government, and we will do it ethically and morally. In 2006 they fired us for not doing that."
Still, unlike the shameful Ayers offensive, tax policy and single-party control of government are at least legitimate issues.
And for McCain, that's progress.
We have heard how many pundits have predicted that the race for the White House is going to be saturated by racism and other forms of discriminations to the extent that America might as well repeat itself again and manifest the kind of mentality that was very evident in the 60's.
While it is not in my place to completely dispute their postulation, nevertheless I am convinced beyond reason doubt that Americans are better than what many of our experts have credit them. In fact that for instance McCain's stand in telling one of his surrogates that Obama is not an Arab, and to imagine that some of these fellows who claimed to have read about him and yet could not decipher the real Obama should be an issue of major concern to all those who love this great country.
Within the horizon of realism racism do exist however I do not see it playing the kind of retrogressive and inimical factor that we have seen in the past. Americans are more consumed with hoping that the future is going to be better and that the prevailing economic crisis is going to handle in such a way that their life is not too dramatically change so much that it may become a burden to them.
Take a simple analogy; will a man who is about drowning refused the help of his fellow man who has the rope to rescue him principally because such a rescuer is White or Black? The answe is an emphatic no! In a synonymous fashion, many Americans are not too concern when the issues at stake especially the economy become the paramount concern. Consequently we are all looking forward to a capable hand that will lead the country in a positive direction and on the path to greatness again.
Obama is the answer to our desire.
God bless USA
God bless Obama & Biden
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Voters who are young or African-American or who sat out the last few elections had never been more sought after as the campaign hits its last weeks in Ohio.
Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of the Republican nominee, visited voters in rural central Ohio. Obama sent music mogul Russell Simmons to rally voters in urban centers of Columbus and Cleveland. And NBA star LeBron James - the closest thing Ohio has to a sports saint - joined Obama's campaign as a pitchman.
"It's all about getting young people to understand how important it is to vote. This is a time that could be life-changing for a lot of people," said James, who campaigned for Obama in his native Akron.
Both campaigns are using the biggest megaphones they can find to build on past years' models. Republicans still plan to carry rural areas; Democrats want to run up big numbers in the state's urban centers.
But both are attempting to go past that.
Obama's Ohio campaign is playing in areas that don't normally get campaign staff. His massive neighbor-to-neighbor program reaches goes into rural areas and traditionally Republican areas. The Democrats have a satellite office within 42 miles of every Ohio resident. All told, Obama's 300-person-plus staff in 79 Ohio offices is twice the size of John Kerry's in 2004, aides said.
Obama's campaign is forcing McCain's to spend time in areas once thought reliably Republican. Luckily for McCain's workers, the Ohio GOP has long organized the state with a groundgame that never truly shuts down after elections. The grass-roots volunteers remain engaged, and the state and county parties keep tabs on them.
McCain is running a leaner campaign, but the Republican National Committee's collaborative Victory Committee is supplementing those efforts. McCain has 40 Ohio offices, but they're open far fewer hours and have far fewer paid staff.
"The groundwork had been there for years. That gave us a good foundation through the dog days of summer," said Jon Seaton, McCain's aide tasked with running Ohio and Pennsylvania. "In other states, creating the infrastructure was a lift. We could get right into it here."
_By Philip Elliott
FOR MONTHS, political reporters have reported on what they know best, politics. Attack ads, conventions, polls, debates, and gotchas - what George Will calls stagecraft, as opposed to statecraft, the ideas of the candidates. That suddenly changed when reality intruded in the form of an economic crisis.
Wall Street was a presidential test and McCain flunked. When the Wall Street crisis hit, John McCain looked dazed and confused and, yes, old. His clueless initial response - saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong - cost him credibility at a crucial moment. Wall Street was a test of presidential capability and McCain buckled.
Ineffectual under pressure. McCain pulled a transparent stunt in pretending to suspend his campaign so he could go to Washington and somehow appear relevant.
He was quickly exposed as over his head when he sat for 40 minutes in dead silence during a discussion by congressional leaders at the White House. Then House Republicans turned down the first plan, leaving McCain with little to say or do. A week later, he quietly voted for the pork-laden Senate bill and slipped out of town.
The public saw it first. Unlike McCain, Americans quickly knew things were bad. Nearly everyone owns stock these days, in retirement accounts. As the Dow plunged, Barack Obama jumped into a statistically significant lead nationally and in crucial states.
Presidential stature. Obama conducted himself with cool and calm during the bailout crisis, just as he did in Tuesday's debate. In short, he looks presidential. We haven't had one in so long I forgot what a president looks like.
The reality of unemployment. Obama is forcing McCain to spend TV dollars in expensive toss-up states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. McCain's quitting Michigan was about too few dollars, too few voters - a recent published poll showed Obama leading by 13 points - and too few jobs.
A job is all that matters when you're unemployed. The Labor Department reported 159,000 jobs were lost in September. Since January, we've lost more than 750,000 jobs and are on our way to 1 million by year's end. Right now, we are a nation with 2 million unemployed.
McCain wants to disqualify Obama. A losing campaign has one chance to win when it's running out of time: disqualify the opponent. McCain's plan is to turn Obama into a risky weirdo who's not like us (white people).
Desperate times, desperate hockey mom. Sarah Palin is out attackin' Obama's character using a flimsy connection to the 1960s radical, anti-Vietnam War bomber Bill Ayers - they once served on a nonprofit board together. Sarah calls this "palin' around with terrorists." Obama has denounced Ayers' words and actions, most of which occurred when Obama was 8. Obama used the attack to make his move against McCain.
Ready, aim, post. The Obama campaign armed its supporters (it's got over 2 million volunteers and contributors) with a 13-minute Web video that had been produced for just this occasion. It's the true story of McCain's strong ties to Charles Keating, a convicted real estate swindler. A charter member of the Keating Five during the savings and loan scandal in the late 1980s, McCain improperly and unsuccessfully used his office to call off federal regulators. McCain, then 58, had received $112,000 in Keating-related campaign contributions plus free trips for McCain and his family on Keating's private jet to the tycoon's retreat in the Bahamas.
Careful what you wish for. Can you imagine 10 of these interminable town hall debates as McCain wanted? Tuesday's debate was boring - except McCain calling Obama "that one" probably got the attention of black voters.
CNN's post-debate poll showed 54 percent of those who had watched felt Obama won; 30 percent said McCain. CBS had it 40-26 percent Obama. Those polls understated Obama's command of the evening.
Obama managed to tie McCain's ceaseless charge about the surge to the financial crisis. Obama said we need the $10 billion a month the war costs.
Tom Brokaw played Clock Nazi the whole night, enforcing time limits just when the candidates started to really debate.
McCain quickly left the stage, grasping the reality of his predicament.
By Peter S. Canellos, Boston Globe Staff
WASHINGTON - John McCain had two goals in last night's town hall-style debate: To rekindle the straight-talk rapport with average voters that was at the core of his primary campaign, and to raise some fresh doubts about his rival, Barack Obama, who has been leading in recent polls.
But from his first remark, "Senator Obama, it's good to be with you at a town hall meeting" - possibly a simple greeting but more likely a veiled reference to Obama's refusal to accept his proposal for 10 town hall debates - McCain's two goals seemed to pull against each other.
Sometimes sarcastic and sometimes sincere, McCain seemed off-balance in a way that undermined his much-repeated claim of being "a cool hand at the tiller."
Obama, who did not particularly excel at town hall-style debates during the primaries - sometimes seeming lordly or professorial - was better than McCain last night at connecting with audience members on their own terms.
When a voter asked what was in the financial bailout package for him, McCain launched into an attack on the abuses in the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, claiming that they occurred "with the encouragement of Senator Obama and his cronies and friends in Washington."
Obama looked the questioner in the eye and said, "Well, Oliver, first let me tell you what's in the rescue package for you. Right now, the credit markets are frozen up and what that means, as a practical matter, is small businesses and some large businesses can't get loans. If they can't get a loan, that means they can't make payroll. If they can't make payroll, they have to shut their doors and lay people off. And if you imagine just one company trying to deal with that, now imagine a million companies all across the country."
Obama's answer had the slightly syrupy quality that made Bill Clinton extremely effective in town hall settings - and sometimes set him up for ridicule afterwards. But such answers are the standard by which town hall debates are judged. Unlike encounters at which both nominees stand behind lecterns, town hall debates test a candidate's ability to frame issues in ways that are meaningful to average people.
McCain, during the primaries, did that and much more - winning plaudits for saying things that most politicians would never say. Sometimes, he openly disagreed with questioners. Sometimes he admitted to weaknesses in himself. Often he challenged conventional assumptions about issues - for example in his politically brave opposition to subsidies for the alternative fuel ethanol.
Little of that McCain was visible last night.
"We in New Hampshire saw him do a lot of these meetings," said Dartmouth College political scientist Linda Fowler. "What was memorable about them was his physical energy, his willingness to say unexpected things. . . . None of that McCain was in evidence last night."
A likely explanation was that, with only four weeks until Election Day, McCain felt pressure to raise doubts about Obama. That required pointing an accusatory finger.
But lines like "Senator Obama would have brought our troops home in defeat," seemed unnecessarily mean when delivered in a friendly setting amid a group of average voters, especially with a confident Obama standing by.
McCain was far better in the rare moments when he bantered with questioners, such as when he told a Naval veteran that everything he learned about leadership came from a chief petty officer.
As in last week's debate, Obama matched McCain point-for-point on foreign policy, and defended himself against McCain's attacks; he fired back with accusations of his own at times, but maintained a more positive tone overall.
Obama called attention to areas where he and McCain agreed, as in the first debate, citing the need to counter Russian dominance in former Soviet satellite states as an example. And he couched his criticisms of McCain and even the Bush administration in gentler terms than his rival.
When asked by moderator Tom Brokaw if healthcare was a privilege, right, or responsibility, McCain chose responsibility. Obama said it was a right.
As at many other points last night, Obama seemed more in touch with his audience.
By William Hershey | Dayton Daily News
Democrat Barack Obama has moved ahead of Republican John McCain in Ohio and two other key battleground states, Florida and Pennsylvania.
A new Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released on Wednesday, Oct. 1, found that the sagging popularity of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's vice presidential running mate, and more confidence in Obama's ability to handle the sagging economy have helped the Democrat in the race for the White House.
The poll tested voter sentiment both before and after the presidential debate on Friday, Sept. 26,
In Ohio, Obama led 49-42 percent pre-debate and 50-42 percent post-debate. In a Sept. 11 Quinnipiac poll, Obama led 49-44 percent.
In Florida, Obama led 49-43 percent pre-debate and 51-43 percent after the debate. In a Sept. 11 Quinnipiac poll, McCain led, 50-43 percent.
In Pennsylvania, Obama led 49-43 percent pre-debate and 54-39 percent post-debate. In a Sept. 11 Quinnipiac poll, Obama led 48-45 percent.
The pre-debate surveys were conducted from Monday, Sept. 22-Friday, Sept. 26.
The post-debate surveys were conducted Saturday, Sept. 27-Monday, Sept. 29.
No candidate has won the White House since 1960 without carrying two of these three states, pointing up the emphasis both candidates are placing on them this time.
In Ohio, the 64 percent of voters who watched the debate said Obama did better, 49-33 percent. Voters in Florida and Pennsylvania also favored Obama's debate performance.
Also in Ohio, Palin's favorability rating was split 35-35 percent between favorable and unfavorable in the post-debate poll while she had a 40-33 percent favorable rating in the pre-debate poll. In the Sept. 11 poll she had a 41-22 percent favorable rating.
Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release that "it's difficult to find a modern competitive presidential race that has swung so dramatically, so quickly and so sharply this late in the campaign."
"Sen. Obama clearly won the debate, voters say. Their opinion of Sarah Palin has gone south and the Wall Street meltdown has been a dagger to McCain's political heart," said Brown.
"Roughly a third of voters, and almost as large a share of the key independent voters, say McCain did more harm than good in trying to resolve the financial crisis, and the share of the voters who see the economy as the top issue has risen from roughly half to six in ten."
The margin of error in Ohio for the pre-debate poll was plus or minus 2.8 percent. In the post-debate poll it was plus or minus 3.4 percent.
