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The McCain wander
The late-night comedy shows all seemed to have the same takeaway from Tuesday's presidential debate. Yes, "That one" got lots of play, but actually I'm talking about something even more ubiquitous: The McCain Wander. The late-night comedy shows all seemed to have the same takeaway from Tuesday's presidential debate. Yes, "That one" go... more
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Barack ‘Osama’ on Rensselaer County ballots
TROY — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s last name is spelled “Osama” on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County.
The misspelling, which elections officials on both sides of the aisle insist was simply a typo, is causing embarrassment for the county.
”No question this is an honest mistake innocently done,” said Edward McDonough, the Democratic commissioner. ”We catch almost everything.”
”This was a typo,” said Republican Commissioner Larry Bugbee. ”We have three different staff members who proof these things and somehow the typo got by us.”
Officials say the flawed ballots were sent to approximately 300 voters. On row 1A Barack Obama’s name is spelled Barack Osama.
Is it a Freudian slip, intentional act or a mistake? Voters are sure to have opinions, and one pol pointed out that the letters ’s’ and ‘b’ are not exactly keyboard neighbors.
But even the county Democratic election commissioner is apologizing for what he calls a terrible mistake.
McDonough said the absentee ballots went out to voters in Brunswick, Nassau, Sand Lake, Schaghticoke and Schodack with the error.
So far three people have called to point it out, he said. Those people will get new ballots sent to them.
One Sand Lake resident who caught the misspelling, and who asked to remain anonymous, was skeptical.
”It’s a little suspicious and at least grossly incompetent,” the voter said. “If I crossed out the name and wrote in the right spelling my ballot would be invalid.” TROY — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s last name is spelled “Osama” on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this w... more -
White Rabbit Cult Presidential Poll
Barack Obama widened his lead over Republican presidential rival John McCain in two national polls and is maintaining an edge in two daily tracking polls with less than a month to go before the election.
An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found Obama supported by 49 percent of registered voters, a 6-point margin over McCain. Two weeks ago an NBC-Journal poll put Obama’s lead at 2 points.
Obama led McCain 53 percent to 45 percent among likely voters in a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey, up from a 4-point advantage for the Democrat in September. Obama’s lead widened to 14 points, 56 percent to 42 percent, among registered voters.
He also is ahead by 8 points in a Gallup Inc. daily tracking poll of registered voters, the 10th straight day he’s held a statistically significant lead in that survey. A Diageo-Hotline tracking poll showed Obama getting 47 percent to McCain’s 41 percent. Barack Obama widened his lead over Republican presidential rival John McCain in two national polls and is maintaining an edge in two d... more -
THE SARAH PALIN NEW SEX SCANDEL!!!
Listen as Sarah Palin tells America who she has fucked and why we are next!!! This is a great little clip… please take a look!
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McCain in a Bear Market
"Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.
In the closing days of his 10-year quest for the presidency, it's less that Obama has bad ideas than that Obama is a bad person.
Demonstrated by bad associations Obama had in Chicago, such as with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."
Recently Obama noted -- perhaps to torment and provoke conservatives -- that McCain's rhetoric about Wall Street's "greed" and "casino culture" amounted to "talking like Jesse Jackson." What fun: one African American Chicago politician distancing himself from another African American Chicago politician by associating McCain with him.
After their enjoyable 2006 congressional elections, Democrats eagerly anticipated that 2008 would provide a second election in which a chaotic Iraq would be at the center of voters' minds. Today they are glad that has not happened. The success of the surge in Iraq, for which McCain justly claims much credit, is one reason why foreign policy has receded to the margins of the electorate's mind, thereby diminishing the subject with which McCain is most comfortable and which is Obama's largest vulnerability.
McCainseeking traction in inhospitable economic terrain, said that the $700 billion bailout plan is too small. He proposes several hundred billions more for his American Homeownership Resurgence -- you cannot have too many surges -- Plan. Under it, the government would buy mortgages that homeowners cannot -- or perhaps would just rather not -- pay, and replace them with cheaper ones. When he proposed this, conservatives participating in MSNBC's "dial group" wrenched their dials in a wrist-spraining spasm of disapproval.
It might be prudent for McCain to throw caution, and billions, to the wind. Obama is competitive in so many states that President Bush carried in 2004 -- including Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico -- it is not eccentric to think he could win at least 350 of the 538 electoral votes.
If that seems startling, that is only because the 2000 and 2004 elections were won with 271 and 286, respectively. In the 25 elections from 1900 to 1996, the winners averaged 402.6. This, even though the 1900 and 1904 elections -- before Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma attained statehood, and before the size of the House was fixed at 435 members in 1911 -- allocated only 447 and 476 electoral votes, respectively. The 12 elections from 1912 through 1956, before Hawaiian and Alaskan statehood, allocated only 531.
In the 25 20th-century elections, only three candidates won with fewer than 300 -- McKinley with 292 in 1900, Wilson with 277 in 1916 and Carter with 297 in 1976. President Harry Truman won 303 in 1948 even though Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat candidacy won 39 that otherwise would have gone to Truman. After John Kennedy won in 1960 with just 303, the average winning total in the next nine elections, up to the 2000 cliffhanger, was 421.4.
"Someday, Labour will win an election. Our job is to hold on until they are sane." Republicans, winners of seven of the past 10 presidential elections, had better hope they have held on long enough. "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John Mc... more -
"What don't you know, and how will you learn it?"
LATimes columnist Rosa Brooks on the debate question:
"'What don't you know, and how will you learn it?"
When "Peggy from Amherst" submitted that question to Tom Brokaw, moderator of Tuesday night's presidential debate, she probably already knew she wasn't going to get a genuine answer from the candidates. And she didn't...
So I'll answer Peggy's question.
What McCain doesn't seem to know -- yet -- is that he's a dead man walking. He'll learn it definitively on Nov. 4, when he's going to lose the election -- and the polls increasingly suggest that he'll lose big. The GOP as a whole will also lose big. We're in the middle of an epochal shift in U.S. politics. A global economic crisis, two wars and an ongoing nuclear and terrorist threat have left most Americans disgusted by the recklessness of free marketeers and by unilateralist, militarist approaches to foreign policy.
The era of GOP dominance of U.S. politics is over. McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, wanted to be the Republican Party's "steady hand at the tiller." Now he's going down with the ship.
Let's get to Obama, who's almost certain to be our president.
What Obama doesn't know is how to keep the global economic crisis from sending all the rest of us to the bottom of the sea, right along with McCain and the GOP.
Obama won't say that, of course -- no sane politician would. On the contrary, Obama, like McCain, bent over backward during Tuesday's debate to reassure voters that all of our problems can be fixed. Neither he nor McCain made reference to the Dow's plunge of 508 points Tuesday, nor to the fact that the index has lost a full third of its value in a year. And when asked by Brokaw if the economy will get "much worse before it gets better," Obama's response was quick: 'No. I'm confident about the American economy.'
Really? I'm not.
I don't usually hope that politicians are being disingenuous. But if Obama truly thinks things won't get worse, then what he doesn't know is scary."
Continued at link... LATimes columnist Rosa Brooks on the debate question: "'What don't you know, and how will you learn it?" ... more -
John McCain Interacting With Town Hall Debate Audience
John McCain With the Presidential Debate audience.
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Obama rejects McCain's plan to buy bad mortgages
Democrat Barack Obama 's campaign criticized John McCain's mortgage bailout plan Wednesday, saying it would cause the government to lose money by paying too much for bad loans.
McCain's proposal to spend $300 billion in federal funds to buy distressed mortgages was a highlight of Tuesday's presidential debate, and it seemed to catch Obama off guard. At first, Obama's campaign said he had made similar proposals and there was nothing new in McCain's remarks.
But after McCain aides offered more details Wednesday, Obama's campaign shifted gears.
The plan would cause the government "to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money, and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don't recover," Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said in a statement. "The biggest beneficiaries of this plan will be the same financial institutions that got us into this mess, some of whom even committed fraud."
McCain's proposal would devote nearly half the $700 billion from the recent financial rescue package to buying troubled mortgages directly, rather than indirectly aiding the nation's financial markets. The government would buy distressed home loans at their face value, said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers. Then it would pay the difference between a mortgage's original value and its renegotiated, lower value.
[Credit: Charles Babington, AP] Democrat Barack Obama 's campaign criticized John McCain's mortgage bailout plan Wednesday, saying it would cause the govern... more -
The Ladies Love the Maverick: The Cindy McCain Luncheon
Ah, now that things are really nasty, I thought it might be nice to reflect back on the Salad Days of the McCain campaign.
The star studded Cindy McCain luncheon at the RNC with Jon Voigt, Clay Walker, Elisabeth Haselbeck of The View, erstwhile spokesperson Carly Fiorina, first dude Tod Palin and of course, the ever charming Cindy McCain. Maybe she should run for President? Ah, now that things are really nasty, I thought it might be nice to reflect back on the Salad Days of the McCain campaign. ... more -
Obama/Mccain....What about your beliefs/morals?
This is ineteresting because they have both avoided this much needed topic. #current
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Fact Checking the 2nd Presidential Debate
Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain stretched facts, sometimes past the breaking point, as they addressed the financial crisis and misrepresented each other's position on health care during their second presidential debate.
Some examples:
McCAIN: Said one way out of the financial crisis is to "stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us."
THE FACTS: Although he didn't spell it out, he was referring — as he has in the past — to purchases of oil from countries hostile to the U.S. The figure is inflated and misleading. The U.S. is not spending nearly that much on oil imports and roughly one-third of what it does spend goes to friendly countries such as Canada, Mexico and Britain.
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OBAMA: "I believe this is a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years, strongly promoted by President Bush and supported by Senator McCain, that essentially said that we should strip away regulations, consumer protections, let the market run wild, and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It hasn't worked out that way. And so now we've got to take some decisive action."
THE FACTS: McCain has indeed favored less regulation over the years but supported tighter rules and accountability on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years before the start of a financial crisis prompted in part by those giant mortgage underwriters. Obama was not a leader in that unsuccessful effort. Some of the current problems can be traced to legislation passed in 1999 that lifted many regulations over the financial industry. That deregulation was championed by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, a McCain supporter, but also by President Clinton, who signed the legislation, and by former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now a top Obama economic adviser.
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McCAIN: Said he would provide a $5,000 refundable tax credit for families to buy health insurance "rather than mandates or fines for small businesses as Senator Obama's plan calls for."
THE FACTS: Obama's health care plan does not impose mandates or fines on small business. He would provide small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on health premiums paid on behalf of their employees. Also, large employers that do not offer meaningful coverage or contribute to the cost of coverage would be required to pay a percentage of payroll toward the costs of a public insurance plan. But small businesses would be exempt from that requirement.
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McCAIN: Complained that Obama's "cronies and friends" had received money from Fannie and Freddie.
THE FACT: McCain has his own ties to the mortgage giants. Rick Davis, his campaign manager, has been a focus of attention because Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae paid him or his lobbying firm more than $2 million dating back to 2000.
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OBAMA: "Actually I'm cutting more than I'm spending so that it will be a net spending cut."
THE FACTS: Obama has many ambitious plans to spend more taxpayer dollars on a variety of federal programs, including clean energy technologies and job training. He's said he'll cut pork-barrel programs and the costs of the war in Iraq to pay for it — as well as raise taxes on the wealthy — but the specifics of his new spending plans greatly outweigh the few spending cuts he's identified.
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McCAIN: Said Obama had voted for tax increases "94 times."
THE FACTS: This inflated count, heard before, includes repetitive votes as well as votes to cut taxes for the middle class while raising them on the rich. An analysis by factcheck.org found that 23 of the votes were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all, seven were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, 11 would have increased taxes on only those making more than $1 million a year.
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Associated Press writers Tom Raum, Andrew Taylor, Kevin Freking and Christopher Wills contributed to this report. Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain stretched facts, sometimes past the breaking point, as they addressed the financial c... more -
cloris leachman
watchin' mccain is like watchin cloris leachman on DANCES W/THE STARS....
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Anger vs. steadiness in the crisis
TIME columnist Joe Klein contrasts Obama and McCain during the financial crisis.
"A few hours before the House of Representatives smacked down the financial-bailout package, I watched John McCain — eyes flashing, jaw clenched, oozing sarcasm and disdain — on the attack in Ohio: 'Senator Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn't want to get involved. Then he was "monitoring the situation." That's not leadership; that's watching from the sidelines.' And I thought of Karl Rove. Back in 2003, at the height of Howard Dean mania, Rove was skeptical about Dean's staying power as a candidate: 'When was the last time Americans elected an angry President?'
Much has been written about McCain's mercurial temperament during the past few weeks. An election campaign that was supposed to be all about Barack Obama has turned out to be all about John McCain. In the process, the other side of the equation — Obama's steadiness throughout — has been pretty much overlooked. Just after the House shot down the bailout, Obama took to the stage in Colorado, and the contrast with McCain couldn't have been greater: 'Now is not the time for fear, now is not the time for panic,' he said. 'We may not be able to do everything overnight ... But I want you to understand, I know we can do it ... Things are never smooth in Congress. It will get done.'
We journalists have an extensive vocabulary for cataloging the failures of politicians and a skimpy one for celebrating their successes. It's safer to be skeptical: no one will ever accuse you of being in the tank. And so we've heard lots, in a negative way, about Obama's coolness and intellectuality. And at times in this campaign — during Hillary Clinton's populist transformation, after Sarah Palin's convention speech — Obama's demeanor has seemed problematic. He was too remote, too cerebral and nuanced in his answers, it was said; he had to get warmer, learn to love junk food, practice his bowling. But Obama stubbornly remained himself through the tough times; his preternatural calm has proved reassuring in both the economic crisis and the first debate. 'His performance has been polished and steady,' a prominent Republican told me. 'John's has not been.'
Part of Obama's steadiness is born of necessity: An angry, or flashy, black man isn't going to be elected President. But I've also gotten the sense, in the times I've interviewed and chatted with him, that calm is Obama's natural default position. He is friendly, informal, accessible ... and a mystery, hard to get to know. He doesn't give away much, doesn't — unlike Bill Clinton — have that desperate need to make you like him. His brilliant, at times excessive, oratory is an outlier — the only over-the-top, Technicolor quality he has. There has been no grand cathartic moment for him in this campaign, but rather a steady accretion of trust, a growing public sense that he knows what he's talking about and isn't going to get crazy on us. His demeanor has rendered foolish all the rumors about his alleged radicalism. This guy is the furthest thing imaginable from an extremist; McCain, by his own admission, is the bomb-thrower in this race..."
Continued below... TIME columnist Joe Klein contrasts Obama and McCain during the financial crisis. ... more -
Record refutes Palin's Sudan claim
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fought to protest atrocities in Sudan by dropping assets tied to the country's brutal regime from the state's multi-billion-dollar investment fund, she claimed during Thursday's vice presidential debate.
Not quite, according to a review of the public record – and according to the recollections of a legislator and others who pushed a measure to divest Alaskan holdings in Sudan-linked investments.
"The [Palin] administration killed our bill," said Alaska state representative Les Gara, D-Anchorage. Gara and state Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, co-sponsored a resolution early this year to force the Alaska Permanent Fund – a $40 billion investment fund, a portion of whose dividends are distributed annually to state residents – to divest millions of dollars in holdings tied to the Sudanese government.
The Alaska Permanent Fund currently holds $22 million in Sudan-linked investments, according to the non-profit Sudan Divestment Task Force. Divestment advocates say the fund does not need an act of the state legislature to divest itself of those holdings.
The McCain-Palin campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fought to protest atrocities in Sudan by dropping assets tied to the country's brutal regime from the sta... more -
Debate poll says Biden won, Palin beat expectations - CNN.com
Story Highlights
51 percent say Democratic Sen. Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate
Republican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeds expectations, 84 percent say
Palin beats Biden on likability, 54-36
87 percent say Biden is qualified for job, 42 percent say Palin is
Next Article in Politics »
(CNN) -- A national poll of people who watched the vice presidential debate Thursday night suggests that Democratic Sen. Joe Biden won, but also says Republican Gov. Sarah Palin exceeded expectations.
Poll respondents give Sen. Joe Biden the edge over Gov. Sarah Palin in ability to express views.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. said 51 percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job.
But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54 percent to Biden's 36 percent. Seventy percent said Biden was more of a typical politician.
Both candidates exceeded expectations -- 84 percent of the people polled said Palin did a better job than they expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations.
How Palin would perform had been a major issue for the Alaska governor, who had some well-publicized fumbles during interviews with CBS' Katie Couric leading up to the debate.
Respondents thought Biden was better at expressing his views, giving him 52 percent to Palin's 36 percent.
On the question of the candidates' qualifications to assume the presidency, 87 percent of those polled said Biden is qualified and 42 percent said Palin is qualified. Story Highlights 51 percent say Democratic Sen. Joe Biden wins vice presidential debate ... more -
!!!!!!!!!
Biden spoke of filling in NATO forces in Palestine...does the American public even know what this means? It means drawing down in Iraq and sending troops to Palestine. The Obama-Biden team is using their Iraq drawdown marketing strategy that is completely overshadowing their real plans. I suggest that the public really think about their decision and realize that these two are just politicians who are speaking what the American public wants to hear... Biden spoke of filling in NATO forces in Palestine...does the American public even know what this means? It means drawing down in Ira... more
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Al Gore Speaks at Hack the Debate 2008
Al Gore's opening speech at Current TV's Hack the Debate Event for the 2008 Presidential Debates. Al touches on all of the hard work that went into the event and some of the recent steps we've taken at Current to try to democratize media. Also he promises to get on Twitter some day.
Current TV partnered up with Twitter and displayed viewers' tweets during the live stream of the debates. We had a reception before the debate to celebrate the event. Al Gore's opening speech at Current TV's Hack the Debate Event for the 2008 Presidential Debates. Al touches on all of the h... more -
Current TV Hack The Debate Behind the Scenes
Andrew Fitzgerald gives a behind-the-scenes look at how Current managed the Hack the Debate event for the first 2008 Presidential Debate. This was taken as we were getting ready for the first debate. Andrew Fitzgerald gives a behind-the-scenes look at how Current managed the Hack the Debate event for the first 2008 Presidential Deba... more
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