McCain/Palin 08 // Current

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... more

starr111
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1 month ago

Steven Colbert: VOTER ABSTINENCE

Steven shows us why young people should stay home on November 4th. Hilarity ensues. "I always wanted my first time... more

neonlight144
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2 months ago

Palin's Journal has Misspelling that's causing controversy!!

John McCain's presidential campaign is reeling this morning upon allegations that his running mate, Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin,... more

starr111
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2 months ago

'First Dude's' blend of personal, public

Todd Palin's involvement in Alaska policy surprises some observers

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2 months ago

Maxed-Out Moms: The Deciding Vote

Meet the woman of the year: White, high school–educated and probably on the north side of age 50, she is getting the worst of a bad economy. She's worrying about whether her daughter will be able to afford college and her father his medicine. Her husband can barely afford the gasoline it takes to get back and forth from a job he's in danger of losing — and with it, their health insurance. She's getting her hair cut less often and sometimes has to put her utility bill on her Visa. She's the woman doing the laundry at 11 p.m., because it's the first chance she's had all day to do it. So it's no surprise that she hasn't yet gotten around to settling on Barack Obama or John McCain — though how she votes may well determine the outcome of the election.

She is, in short, a woman who might have a few things in common with Lori Stern, an administrative assistant in Des Moines, Iowa, who lost her second job at a coffee shop when it closed. Stern went to her state's Republican caucuses last January, listened and left without voting. She still hasn't made up her mind, though she's now leaning toward Obama. "I'm very aware of what's going on, and have paid attention, but I find it really hard to be trustful of politicians in general," she says. That sentiment is echoed by Beth Seidel, a factory worker in Cleveland who works the third shift so she can take her son to school and then to practices for the four sports he plays. Pausing recently at a Wal-Mart, she said: "Honestly, I don't know what to do. I really don't want to vote for McCain. You can tell he only cares about rich people. Sarah Palin wears glasses that cost $300. McCain's wife wears Gucci clothes. Which means they don't know anything about people like me." Into that stew of assumptions, she adds: "I hear that Obama's a Muslim. If he is a Muslim, that would be a problem, because the terrorists already attacked us." (He's not.)

Their profiles change from campaign to campaign, but women like Stern and Seidel have been deciding U.S. elections for years. In 1996, they were the "soccer moms" Bill Clinton captured to win re-election. After 9/11, they morphed into the security moms who helped give George W. Bush a second term. Four years later, they are a little older, and their anxieties have multiplied. Their numbers are enormous: They typically account for as much as 12% of the electorate. The two campaigns are referring to them as Wal-Mart moms, but a better name might be maxed-out moms.

More pragmatic than partisan, "non-college-educated white women are the ultimate swing voters and the ultimate late deciders," says Mary Beth Cahill, who was John Kerry's 2004 campaign manager. "They swing back and forth with every new piece of information." In the Democratic primaries, they came out in force for Hillary Clinton. Many say they wish Obama had put her on the ticket, but on the issues they still tilt toward the Democrats. Given their worries about the direction of the country, their low regard for the current occupant of the White House and the fact that women voters normally trend more Democratic than men do, Obama has some reason to believe he should carry the maxed-out mom vote in the general election.

At the moment, however, McCain seems to be winning them handily — which is a big reason for the growing nervousness among the Democratic rank and file. A new TIME poll, conducted Sept. 11-15, shows Obama and McCain running a dead heat among women overall. But McCain holds an 18-point lead among older, less-educated likely women voters. "Frankly, it's because they are conflicted on Obama," says pollster Geoff Garin, who served as the chief strategist for Clinton's campaign in its final days. "They'd like to vote for a Democrat, but they are not sure Obama is the one."

****Read More!****Meet the woman of the year: White, high school–educated and probably on the north side of age 50, she is getting the worst... more

aswift1
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3 months ago

Palin Inquiry Showing Signs of Distress

A bipartisan panel may meet to discuss delaying the investigation into whether the Alaska governor dismissed a top official because he would not fire a state trooper who was divorcing her sister.

The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new legal maneuvering and heightened Republican pressure to delay the inquiry until after election day.

Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying, "Hold me accountable," but she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate.

In a reversal of position, a key Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday he might convene the committee that is conducting the investigation on whether Palin dismissed her public safety commissioner because he would not fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor's sister.

Some Republican members of the committee have asked for such a meeting to consider delaying the inquiry or to replace Democratic state Sen. Hollis French as its manager. The investigation's conclusions are supposed to be released by Oct. 10.

The Legislative Council, made up of 10 Republicans and four Democrats, had unanimously approved launching the inquiry.

A lawyer for five Alaska Republican legislators suing for a delay of the investigation said he would wait to see what the Legislative Council did before asking a judge for an injunction.

The council chairman, Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton, said he would poll other council members on whether to meet. In a letter Wednesday to House Speaker John Harris, Elton said the situation had become so politicized it was difficult to imagine it could get worse.

Elton also sent a letter to state Atty. Gen. Talis J. Colberg, a Republican appointed by Palin, who said Tuesday he would refuse to allow 10 subpoenaed state employees to testify despite assurances from Colberg's staff last week that they would testify if certain interpretations of state law were agreed upon.

The McCain campaign said Monday that Palin, who was not subpoenaed, was unlikely to cooperate.

One of the witnesses summoned last week, former Palin legislative director John Bitney, said he testified Tuesday.

Bitney said he felt he didn't have a choice. "If I had a publicly funded attorney telling me I didn't have to honor the subpoena, it might have been different," he said.
A bipartisan panel may meet to discuss delaying the investigation into whether the Alaska governor dismissed a top official... more

aswift1
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3 months ago

Alaska women reject Palin rally

We begin in Anchorage, Alaska, where a group of average women decided to hold a small rally to let it be known that their... more

TravG73
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3 months ago

how the world would vote on our Presidential Election

this is pretty sad.

talicatz
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3 months ago

Who Am I?

"I am under 45 years old, I love the outdoors, I hunt, I am a Republican reformer, I have taken on the Republican Party... more

JoKnows
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3 months ago

Democrats Compare Obama to Jesus

Bless his heart! In this clip, Cohen compares Obama to Jesus and implies Palin to be like Pontius Pilate. Does this make... more

JoKnows
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3 months ago

Female Politicians Should Study History

I haven't read much of Camille Paglia's writings, but this article has prompted me to take another look at her:
She wrote about McCain and Sarah Palin in a more thoughtful stance than I had thought a self-confessed "dissident feminist" would. ( I particularly liked the jellyfish comparison!)

As Camille Paglia said:

"As a dissident feminist, I have been arguing since my arrival on the scene nearly 20 years ago that young American women aspiring to political power should be studying military history rather than taking women's studies courses, with their rote agenda of never-ending grievances. I have repeatedly said that the politician who came closest in my view to the persona of the first woman president was Sen. Dianne Feinstein, whose steady nerves in crisis were demonstrated when she came to national attention after the mayor and a gay supervisor were murdered in their City Hall offices in San Francisco. Hillary Clinton, with her schizophrenic alteration of personae, has never seemed presidential to me -- and certainly not in her bland and overpraised farewell speech at the Democratic convention (which skittered from slow, pompous condescension to trademark stridency to unseemly haste).

...Here's one episode. My father and his visiting brother, a dapper barber by trade, were standing outside having a smoke when a great noise came from the nearby barn. A calf had escaped. Our landlady yelled, "Stop her!" as the calf came careening at full speed toward my father and uncle, who both instinctively stepped back as the calf galloped through the mud between them. Irate, our landlady trudged past them to the upper pasture, cornered the calf, and carried that massive animal back to the barn in her arms. As she walked by my father and uncle, she exclaimed in amused disgust, "Men!"

Now that's the Sarah Palin brand of can-do, no-excuses, moose-hunting feminism -- a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.

Right now, I don't believe much of what I read or hear about Palin in the media. To automatically assume that she is a religious fanatic who has embraced the most extreme ideas of her local church is exactly the kind of careless reasoning that has been unjustly applied to Barack Obama, whom the right wing is still trying to tar with the fulminating anti-American sermons of his longtime preacher, Jeremiah Wright.

The witch-trial hysteria of the past two incendiary weeks unfortunately reveals a disturbing trend in the Democratic Party, which has worsened over the past decade. Democrats are quick to attack the religiosity of Republicans, but Democratic ideology itself seems to have become a secular substitute religion. Since when did Democrats become so judgmental and intolerant? Conservatives are demonized, with the universe polarized into a Manichaean battle of us versus them, good versus evil. Democrats are clinging to pat group opinions as if they were inflexible moral absolutes. The party is in peril if it cannot observe and listen and adapt to changing social circumstances."

Thank you, Camille - I'll be bookmarking your column for the future!I haven't read much of Camille Paglia's writings, but this article has prompted me to take another look at her: She... more

JoKnows
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3 months ago

Hillary Just One of Many

She wasn’t going to “stay home and bake cookies”, she was going to reform the health-care system: if we elected her husband, we were thus going to get “two for the price of one”. With those words, Hillary Clinton launched herself into America’s national consciousness, and began a political career that very nearly brought her the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year. Though she lost that contest, along the way she succeeded in making herself into something more than an ordinary woman in politics. She became an archetype, the Female American Politician.

More than that: she became the archetype of the Powerful American Woman. She herself once explained the hostility she inspires as the misdirected fury of men who were angry at a “female boss” or other female authority figure. They felt bad about being subordinate to a woman at work, so they took it out on her.

This was not entirely accurate: some people disliked Hillary just because she was Hillary. But it’s true that her personal style – frequently chilly, determinedly frumpy, visibly calculating, pointedly humourless – did come to seem like a kind of norm. That’s why, when she lost the Democratic nomination, it wasn’t hard for some to see it as a defeat for all women. If Hillary couldn’t make it in national politics, her disappointed supporters declared, then no woman could.

As anybody who has been watching the news for the past week will already know, that statement turned out to be dead wrong. As it turns out, there are numerous ways for women to be politically powerful in America, and they don’t all involve wearing shapeless trouser suits and looking frosty: Sarah Palin, enter stage right.

The interest in her and her life story is no fluke, either. Following the failure of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Palin is suddenly, and flamboyantly, the most prominent female politician in the country. At age 44, she is also the most prominent representative of her generation of women – a generation which already looks set to be different, in important ways, from its predecessors.

There is, at the moment, even a potential first lady who seems destined to break, if not glass ceilings, then at least preconceptions about what that particular job means, with all of its loaded cultural connotations. Michelle Obama is equally articulate, equally maternal, and no less well-groomed that Sarah Palin. She gave a convention speech which was, in its way, no less revolutionary – in her allotted half-hour, she portrayed herself neither as a traditional first lady, nor as a presidential substitute who would set up her desk next door to the Oval Office, but as rather something different altogether – a successful career woman as well as a mother, a dedicated activist and a wife.

Instead of a tough suit she wore a soft dress. Instead of telling the American public they would get “two for the price of one”, she seemed secure enough about her own identity to simply support her husband. As it happens, she, like Sarah Palin, is 44 years old.

None of this is meant to imply that Hillary Clinton’s generation is finished, let alone Hillary herself: she may well be back in the national game, in 2012, 2016, or later. But the appointment of Palin does bring the Hillary Era to an end – she isn’t the archetypal Female American Politician anymore, she’s just one of many.
She wasn’t going to “stay home and bake cookies”, she was going to reform the health-care system: if we elected... more