Is what happened to Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers now happening to the Obama Campaign? Last January, John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, was part of the upbeat “Yes We Can” chorus, telling investors in a conference call that “We have great, long-term prospects. As I look out into 2008, I am very optimistic about our ability to perform for our shareholders.” It turns out, though, that the oceans of red ink did not stop rising when Obama was nominated. Let’s see, in January 2008, Merrill stock was trading in the low 50s (down from nearly 100 the year before). Now its in the 20s, and this past Monday, swamped by debt, the venerable house of Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America. Turns out there was a hollowness at the center of Mr. Thain’s optimism. Like the city of Oakland according to Gertrude Stein, there was no there there. The promised prosperity was fabricated on empty rhetoric. And when it began to unravel, it unraveled fast.
Sound familiar?
I’d say team Obama is nearing a meltdown. Consider how they are running the campaign. Do we not see signs of desperation? I know that national political contests are not run by Emily Post. Exaggeration. A little name-calling. Accentuate the positive when speaking about yourself, the negative when speaking about your opponent. No one expects impartiality in a political campaign. But even in that rough-and-tumble world, some standards of decency apply–or, rather, should apply. Let’s leave aside yesterday’s revelation that supporters of Obama hacked into Sarah Palin’s private email and published screen shots of some of the contents on the internet–”a shocking invasion of the Governor’s privacy,” as Rick Davis, McCain-Palin campaign manager said, not to mention “a violation of law.” Let’s look instead at the recent Spanish TV ad from Team Obama. Does it meet that minimum standard of decency? The Washington Post describes (and contains a link to) the ad:
The Obama campaign has released new radio and TV ads in Spanish that seek to tie Sen. John McCain to anti-immigrant comments made by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The ads also suggest the Republican has “dos caras” — “two faces” — when it comes to his relations with Latino voters. . . .
“They want us to forget the insults we’ve put up with, the intolerance,” the television ad’s announcer says in Spanish as a picture of Rush Limbaugh appears onscreen with quotes of him saying, “Mexicans are stupid and unqualified” and “Shut your mouth or get out.”
Never mind that McCain–who teamed up with Ted Kennedy to propose a very liberal immigration reform bill–is miles away from Limbaugh on the question of how do deal with illegal immigration. Focus instead on the shocking quotations from Limbaugh:
“Mexicans are stupid and unqualified.”
“Shut your mouth or get out.
Not very nice, is it?
But As Jake Tapper at ABC news reports, the ad completely twists Limbaugh’s meaning by tearing the quotations from their original context. In 1993, Tapper notes, Limbaugh went after NAFTA as follows:
“If you are unskilled and uneducated, your job is going south. Skilled workers, educated people are going to do fine ’cause those are the kinds of jobs NAFTA is going to create. If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, I’m serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do — let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.”
Hardly the xenophobic expostulation the ad saddled him with, is it?
How about “Shut your mouth or get out”? That, Tapper notes, comes from a critical comment about Mexican law that Limbaugh made in 2006:
“Everybody’s making immigration proposals these days. Let me add mine to the mix. Call it The Limbaugh Laws:
“First: If you immigrate to our country, you have to speak the native language. You have to be a professional or an investor; no unskilled workers allowed. Also, there will be no special bilingual programs in the schools with the Limbaugh Laws. No special ballots for elections. No government business will be conducted in your language. Foreigners will not have the right to vote or hold political office.
“If you’re in our country, you cannot be a burden to taxpayers. You are not entitled to welfare, food stamps, or other government goodies. You can come if you invest here: an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. If not, stay home. But if you want to buy land, it’ll be restricted. No waterfront, for instance. As a foreigner, you must relinquish individual rights to the property.
“And another thing: You don’t have the right to protest. You’re allowed no demonstrations, no foreign flag waving, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our President or his policies. You’re a foreigner: shut your mouth or get out! And if you come here illegally, you’re going to jail.
“You think the Limbaugh Laws are harsh? Well, every one of the laws I just mentioned are actual laws of Mexico today! That’ how the Mexican government handles immigrants to their country. Yet Mexicans come here illegally and protest in our streets!
“How do you say ‘double standard’ in Spanish? How about: ‘No mas!’”
The ad grossly misrepresents McCain’s position on immigration. It scandalously misrepresents what Rush Limbaugh said.
From the very beginning of this campaign, Team Obama has been skirling that McCain has resorted to “lies” and “smear” tactics. As Byron York points out, Exhibit A in the dossier is the ad McCain ran that contended that Obama’s “one accomplishment” in education was supporting “legislation to teach ‘comprehensive sex education’ to kindergartners.”
Team Obama decried the ad as “shameful,” “perverse,” just another example of McCain’s mendacity. According to Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, the bill in question was not about sex ed for kindergartners but was “written to protect young children from sexual predators.” The New York Times, Washington Post, and other unofficial members of the committee to elect Obama dutifully parroted this response. But York shows that, notwithstanding the protest from Obama’s handlers, the ad was essentially accurate. The bill in question (the text is here) was introduced in the Illinois Senate in 2003. York quotes a press release that describes the bill: “It teaches students about the advantages of abstinence,” the bill’s main sponsor, Sen. Carol Ronen said, “while also giving them the realistic information they need about the prevention of an unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.” The release, York notes, makes “no mention of sexual predators or inappropriate touching.”
What, specifically, was the bill designed to do? It appears to have had three major purposes:
* The first, as Ronen indicated, was to mandate that information presented in sex-ed classes be “factual,” “medically accurate,” and “objective.”
* The second purpose was to increase the number of children receiving sex education. Illinois’ existing law required the teaching of sex education and AIDS prevention in grades six through twelve. The old law read:
Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades 6 through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention, transmission and spread of AIDS.
Senate Bill 99 struck out grade six, changing it to kindergarten, in addition to making a few other changes in wording. It read:
Each class or course in comprehensive sex education in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV.
York proceeds with a meticulous examination of the bill’s contents, quoting copious from those who sponsored and supported it. The bottom line, he concludes, is that “the bill’s intention was to mandate that issues like contraception and the prevention of sexually-transmitted diseases be included in sex-education classes for children before the sixth grade, and as early as kindergarten. Obama’s defenders may howl, but the bill is what it is.”
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109 Comments
1. srlucado:Obama’s recent comments and attitude reflect a growing desperation, but at least they can count on the MSM’s unwavering support. According to the NYT and Washinton Post, Obama and Senator Hairplugs are gifts from heaven, unlike the satanic Republican duo.
How that will translate into votes remains to be seen – but I predict that the increasingly hysterial media support for Obama weakens the media a lot more than it weakens Obama.
Scott
Sep 18, 2008 - 8:21 am 2. KD:Thank you for defending Rush Limbaugh, a man who does God’s work, though perhaps unknowingly.
What a joy it was to hear Rush shout: “Sarah Palin: babies, guns, Jesus, hot damn!”
He instantly recognized an uniquely American Valkyrie!
A Warrior Queen who gazed unblinking across the snowy wastes to Russia, the Evil Empire that seeks to rise again, and said NEVER!
She is unique in the eyes of American men and women — both a Moral Avatar and a Commodity!
As Rush so manfully put it, HOT DAMN!
Oh Sarah! If and when the day comes when you alone must lead us, I will not blink! I know you will carry the Vision of W the Innocent forward. To Victory!
Never fear! The hysterical media support for Obama won’t matter in the end.
The vile Muslim and his Henchman WILL be defeated.
Sep 18, 2008 - 12:40 pm 3. Jack Okie:God wills it!
KD:
I’m down with that. Count me in!
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:03 pm 4. Jack Klompus:Get a new act KD. You’re not the least bit clever, funny or informative. You simply come across like a pretentious, pedantic jackass.
Sep 18, 2008 - 1:14 pm 5. katzenjammer:KD is obviously suffering from Palinosis. Logorrheic expostulation similar to Tourette’s? Check. Irrational and sourceless rage? Check. Inability to distinguish fact from fiction? Check. Hopefully these people will recover before casting their vote.
Sep 18, 2008 - 2:05 pm 6. mtraven:Power-hungry neocon shills support McCain, real conservatives support Obama.
Sep 18, 2008 - 5:34 pm 7. Peter Laverick:Why would anyone of any sense support Obama? The man has no skill, no experience and no moral compass. Like all Democrats he justs wants to increase the size of Government because it allows more people like him to earn largish amounts of cash for doing something useless.
They talk up “discrimaination” and “the environment” so as to give themselves the right to boss us all about. This is how modern socialism has evolved all around the World, the Government interfering in and micromanaging our lives through appearing to help. Too many people are obese, they have said in the UK, so now the Government will just have to step in and mandate exercise and dietary reform. They will set targets whuich will be met by enterprising civil servants whilst the problem (if it really exists) gets worse.
That is what you in the US will get if you elect an idiot like Obama.
Democrat Party delenda est
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:26 pm 8. srlucado:mtraven: You’re quoting D Magazine?
D Magazine? Mouthpiece of the Texas Democratic Party? Limousine-liberal rag of pretentious Dallasites?
Now *there’s* a sign of Dems’ desperation.
God, you have to have a receipt from an abortion clinic before they’ll even let you subscribe to that trash.
If you want to convince me that Texas conservatives are supporting Obama, you’re going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that.
When the guys at http://www.texashuntingforum.com are singing Obama’s praises, I’ll reconsider. Until then…
Scott
Sep 18, 2008 - 6:33 pm 9. mtraven:I don’t know anything about D Magazine, but the author of that piece (who also owns the magazine) used to be the editor of National Review, which ought to count for something.
I’m curious: do you think the audience for Roger’s magazine, The New Criterion, has more in common with D or with Texas Hunting Forum?
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:53 pm 10. KD:God will shield John McCain and Sarah Palin. We can be certain of that.
We are living in the Last Days. Sarah Palin knows this. Barack Obama does not. The “audacity of hope”! What a fool. Hope lies ONLY in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are here to finish the Task God gave to President Bush: to be His Servants and usher in the Judgement! Glory to God!
The purpose of the United States is to glorify God. Terrorism against Jews is God’s Judgement of unbelief. Sarah Palin was THERE to hear those mighty words.
Godless leftists — beware! God will not be mocked. And He will not blink.
Even the great Dr. Dobson hasn’t been so excited by a politician since the Immortal Ronald Reagan!
Leftists do not realize the True Nature of the Enemy — or the True Nature of the Task ahead. They don’t realize that criticism of President Bush won’t get them anywhere, except for Hell! The same goes for criticism of Sarah Palin or John McCain. A War Hero who saw Sarah’s Greatness instantly. God protect them!
Sarah Palin has become the Sweetheart of the Grand Old Party! She will lead the nation with a Servant’s Heart.
Jesus has called us to fight. And He has called us to die. Jesus operates in a position of “war mode” — so let us not give up the fight!
Dominion!
Sep 18, 2008 - 10:10 pm 11. KD:Thank you, Jack Klompus!
I know I’m on the Right Track when a Godless Communist like yourself is offended.
Sep 18, 2008 - 10:41 pm 12. mtraven:Oh look, here’s another one.
Sep 18, 2008 - 10:51 pm 13. Pat:Bravo, KD! Your one-person show just keeps getting better and better. No matter how many times I see your act, I never get tired of it. What time is the next performance?
Sep 18, 2008 - 10:54 pm 14. srlucado:mtraven: “I’m curious: do you think the audience for Roger’s magazine, The New Criterion, has more in common with D or with Texas Hunting Forum?”
I have no idea, don’t care, and don’t see how it affects your supposed argument. You’re trying to make the point that somehow “real” conservatives are defecting in droves to Obama, and simply put, that is nonsense. If anything, people who would not have considered themselves of any political stripe are flocking to McCain (and especially) Palin.
But since you brought up the National Review, here’s what NR’s Jonah Goldberg has to say (http://tinyurl.com/4lsyed):
Wick Allison Endorses Obama…In Other News, Squirrel Learns to Water Ski [Jonah Goldberg]
From a reader, speaking for a few others:
Wick joins jeffery hart in endorsing obama. why do i get the feeling this will be ignored at the corner today?
Me: Well, you’re hearing about it now. As for why folks aren’t making a bigger deal of it, the answer is really quite simple. It’s not a big deal. And it’s not news. Beyond that, I guess it’s earth shattering.
For the record, I addressed this Obamacon nonsense here [http://tinyurl.com/4xzb88] and here [http://tinyurl.com/4elr69].
I’ll just add that I think this continued effort to point to a groundswell of conservatives flocking to Obama is hilarious. It’s just not true (unless you think Andrew Sullivan is still a conservative). Going by the polls, independents and conservative Democrats support McCain far more than the other way around. The Democrats put up Jim Leach and the mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska as proof of Obama’s bipartisan appeal at their convention. Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, was a keynoter at the Republican convention.
I have no personal animus — or relationship — with Wick Allison, but his endorsement of Obama really means next to nothing in the grand scheme of things. Indeed, Lynn Forester de Rothschild’s endorsement of McCain is a much bigger deal by comparison and even that is not big deal in objective terms.
09/18 11:02 AM
Sep 19, 2008 - 3:20 am 15. Rev Debbie Gibbons:I am curious about your comment that the “supporters of Obama” hacked into Gov. Palin’s email…when I followed the link, I didn’t find any comment regarding the identity of those who hacked into the email, nor did I find any comment regarding any link with the Obama campaign…why did you report the event as you did?
Sep 19, 2008 - 7:50 am 16. Jack Klompus:Offended? Ha! Hardly. Just laughing at what a pretentious, narcissistic dork you are.
Sep 19, 2008 - 8:44 am 17. KD:Jack, do you disagree with anything I’ve said? Do you disagree with Sarah Palin? Do you disagree with her Church? Perhaps you’re an anti-American Communist atheist! You’ll be laughing all the way to Hell if you are!
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:15 am 18. Jack Klompus:Continuing to eye-roll in complete boredom and amusement at your utter lack of anything remotely clever or creative in you self-indulgent pseudo-Wildean attempts at satire and parody. But I’m sure you kiss yourself repeatedly over your pedestrian wit.
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:21 am 19. KD:I see you are a man without honor. A coward who won’t admit he disgrees with Sarah Palin, with her Church, with God! I wonder how bored and amused you’ll be in Hell.
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:30 am 20. mtraven:srlucado said: I have no idea, don’t care, and don’t see how it affects your supposed argument.
It doesn’t. You are the one who tried to dismiss that article I posted by mocking the context of where it appeared. I just find it interesting that the fanboys of the alleged intellectual Roger Kimball find it are more comfortable with Guns and Ammo type rags than a thoughtful piece published by a former National Review editor, because that piece is published in a magazine that appeals to the affluent and educated.
I wouldn’t presume to say who is a “real” conservative. If a conservative is someone who starts illegal and fruitless wars of agression, while bankrupting the treasury, fine. But I also find it interesting to observe that there is a split in the conservative movement betweent those who are hopelessly in the tank for Bush, McCain, and the neocon program of aggressive imperialism, which to me seems to have nothing actually conservative about it, with those smaller groups who retain a shred of devotion to the actual principles of caution and limited government. These include paleocons like Daniel Larison and others at The American Conservative, libertarians, and anyone with a shred of intellectual self-respect who is repulsed by the appeal to lowest common denominator embodied by Palin. A good number of these are realizing that their values would be better served by Obama than McCain.
An actual intellectual, which Roger is not, would take this opportunity to sit back, think if their support for the Republican party was actually achieving any conservative goals, and perhaps back away slowly and gracefully from the unmitigated disaster they’ve created. Not Roger; he’s too busy taking the crassesst of potshots at Obama for any sort of reflection.
Here’s more along those lines.
Here is a growing list of Republicans who have endorsed Obama.
And even the neoconservatives are starting to bail.
BTW, the National Review used to be an organ with some intellectual respectability, although its ideology was creepy. Hiring dumbfucks like Jonah Goldberg has done away with that.
Sep 19, 2008 - 2:03 pm 21. Nine-of-Diamonds:“You’ll be laughing all the way to Hell…!”
“Godless Communist…”
“I see you are a man without honor. A coward who won’t admit he disgrees with Sarah Palin, with her Church, with God!”
“I wonder how bored and amused you’ll be in Hell.”
@Jack and Pat: Anyone else around here feeling a sort of guilty fascination? Like when you see a fatal accident and can’t help but look? We’ve been blessed with front row seats to a mental trainwreck that would put “Under Seige 2″ to shame.
The sheer single-mindedness of the Left’s Palin fixation is even more comical than BDS.
Sep 19, 2008 - 2:07 pm 22. ricpic:I wish I could agree that Obama’s campaign is imploding but I can’t. No matter how incompetent, the Democratic candidate is significantly more likely to benefit from economic hard times in the runnup to the election than is the Republican candidate.
My guess is that Democratic senators and congressmen will do everything in their power to stymy the actions Washington can take at this juncture to shore up economic confidence.
If the economy continues unraveling in October Obama wins.
Sep 19, 2008 - 2:28 pm 23. George:I imagine if Obama were hermaphroditic he would be even more popular among a depraved sector of late capitalist Americans. Its clear they know nothing about actual policy decisions which puts Obama towards the right of another perverted freak, Bill Clinton. That’s obviously the constructed appeal of Obama among these MTV adolescents who never read a book in their lives, the miscegenational aspect of the advertising and journalistic cults.
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:47 pm 24. KD:Could it be, dear friends, that we have been duped?
Is our Beloved president, George W. Bush, really a Communist?
What’s next?
O, Jesus, who guides the Invisible Hand, hear our prayers…
Sep 19, 2008 - 10:25 pm 25. Pajamas Media » Obama and Desperation: A Wall Street Analogy:[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:55 am 26. belair:I wish I could get notified by e-mail whenever and wherever KD posts a comment on the ‘jama.
You Go, Kilo Delta!
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:25 am 27. Ed Wallis:Rev Debbie Gibbons, Are you looking for this, perhaps?
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardminiter/2008/09/18/palin-hackers-identity-is-revealed/
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:42 am 28. Jeff Sulman:Would somebody shut KD up? Please! No wonder no one takes liberals seriously except themselves.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:11 am 29. NB:Ahhhhhhhahahaha. KD’s hilarious. Granted the parody would be funnier if he/she understood in the slightest what a Conservative or a Christian actually was. Then again maybe not. Most of the funny is in the fact that she believes she’s painted an accurate caricature. Truly priceless in that it restores hope. Clearly the opposition does not “know thy enemy”. Makes winning an election pretty easy.
Good article by the way. Love the “McCain distorts the truth” comments every time the Obama camp makes them. I believe the term is projection. In fact just the other day Obama was talking about how “clearly the McCain camp is getting desperate”. Priceless. Do they look at their own flaws and weaknesses and just try to throw them at the opposing side? Seems silly. Perhaps Obama’s next book will be “How to lose a gimme election with nuance”.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:19 am 30. ApplePie:As Obamacus has waivered in the polls the shrillness of the liberal wails & lies have risen.
I am appalled at the manner in which Obama – (and now his sidekick Chia Pet) – has unashamedly used race to divide our Country – first with Hillary & Bill Clinton and now with John McCain & Sarah Palin.
Mr. “Different Politician” has shown himself to be the epitome of the long established Chicago political corruption from whence he comes.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:36 am 31. Amos:KD is the kind of unfunny idiot I used to despise in college. The smarmy, self-righteous, ignorant little middle class whitebread know-nothing dweeb leftist, who thinks inept sarcasm devoid of any originality is wit and who thinks his refusal to act like an adult is some kind of personal victory against society.
These people really are a tedious cliche’.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:39 am 32. Amos:Frankly I don’t think Obama will win. He’s just too flawed, and the next 7 weeks will be wall to wall Ayers/Wright/Resco ads pointing out his dubious connections with the hateful left.
If they’re smart they’ll play the Pleger clip on a loop too, with Pleger hamming it up pretending to be Hillary, squalling “Ah blaaack maaahhn’s takin’ mah job!” at the top of his voice while the crowd cheers and hoots. That was probably the most disgusting and offensive thing I’ve seen in years, and it’s sure to infuriate the PUMAs.
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:46 am 33. Obama and desperation: an analogy from Wall Street « Count Us Out:[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2008/09/18/obama-and-desperation-an-analogy-from-wall-street/ [...]
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:03 am 34. Roger Godby:Progressive voters will vote to live on Obama’s island.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:10 am 35. Boris:“I’d say team Obama is nearing a meltdown. Consider how they are running the campaign. Do we not see signs of desperation?”
What kind of analysis is this after McCain has one of the worst weeks ever? McCain foundered, going from the economy is fundamentally sound to no bailouts, to speedy bailouts. He has shown he has no clue what is happening (not that Obama has a clue–but he is hiding his ignorance better.)
This is just mindless cheerleading dressed up as analysis. McCain’s bounce is gone, Palin is stonewalling an investigation she once welcomed, the ecoomy that Phil Gramm helped mutilate is front and center and the Republican mantra of deregulation has been shown to be an abysmal failure. Moreover, Obama is surging in the polls.
Rest assured, the McCain campaign is the campaign of desperation.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:33 am 36. Amos:See Boris, you were half way there to being a reasonable person rather than the type of shrill partisan you despise. Yes the bump is gone, that’s what happens, that’s why it’s called a bump. It’s true that this race is close and will remain close, there will be no landslide either way. The dubiousness the electorate has for Republicans this year is being offset by Obama’s lack of experience and connection with unpalatable characters, these two competing forces will hang in the balance until election day.
You turned silly when you mentioned the ‘investigation’, it’s an idiotic witch hunt and if the O campaign had something better they’d be thanking God and going with that. A drunk, violent, unstable man who tasered his own 10-year old step son has no business being a cop, if he had remained in his job THE EXACT SAME PEOPLE, YOU INCLUDED, who are alleging that she got him fired would be spinning conspiracy theories about the Governor using her influence to keep him in his job because he was her brother in law. Admit it. Be a reasonable person, not a partisan tool.
Nobody is ’surging’ in the polls, it’s going to be close all the way, both sides have their drawbacks. And even if the economy is tanking, do you think the American electorate is going to be inclined towards a pseudo-socialist from the Chicago political machine to fix it? Maybe, but I don’t know. I doubt it.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:48 am 37. Boris:“Governor using her influence to keep him in his job because he was her brother in law. Admit it. Be a reasonable person, not a partisan tool.”
Partisan? The Alaska legislature voted 14-0 to go forward with the investigation–and now you complain it’s a partisan witch hunt? Please.
If it is so cut and dried, what is Palin hiding? Why is her husband ignoring a subpoena? That makes them look guilty of something. especially since they once promised to cooperate.
This isn’t about her brother in law; it’s about firing the guy who had 35 years of service because he would not fire the brother in law.
I don’t know if she did anything wrong. Hell, I might have tried to get the guy fired too. But did she take it too far? Did she abuse her power? That’s what investigations are for.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:59 am 38. Evil Pundit:Boris, if that’s the worst scandal the Democrats can come up with, then they really are at the desperation stage.
Let’s see how it compares to Obama’s longstanding associations with terrorists, criminals, racists and voting fraudsters.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:22 am 39. hp:intense intimidation that stank of desperation was invoked behind the scenes towards those who dared to speak out against any aspect of the campaign long before he got the party nod and so even before his numbers started to fall.
wonder what part of his taking millions in campaign donations from joe schmoe then changing his stance on the hot topics is forgotten by these people as one of the reasons the numbers are falling. if an apology has been given to those previous donors, it sure hasn’t made the headlines.
anyone keeping tabs on the factors so they are never far from the public eye, least we all forget? everywhere we turn on the internet socially, timelines are popping up. this is one place the same is DESPERATELY necessary.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:25 am 40. bob:“That’s what investigations are for.”
Not when the target has been picked as the running mate of party A, and the three principal “investigators” are members of party B’s “Alaskans for Obama” leadership committee.
And when THE principal “investigator” — before holding a single hearing, interviewing a single witness, or serving a single subpoena, warns that his report WILL be an “October Surprise”.
No, in THIS situation, “investigations” like this one ARE partisan witch-hunts. Never mind that BEFORE this situation developed, BEFORE Obama won his nomination, BEFORE Palin was picked, that waaaay back then some Republicans went along with the request for an investigation.
THEN, throw in that while Palin has an 80% approval rating in Alaska, that support is definitely NOT coming from the Alaskan legislature. THOSE are the Good Ol’ Boys she ran against, and whose toes, graft, and corruption she stepped on. THEY are not her fans, regardless of party. So even “back then” when that 14-0 vote was held, it wasn’t intended as a “partisan” witch hunt — just a politics-as-usual non-partisan…witch hunt.
Roger’s right: if Team Obama had something better than an obviously politically (and now partisan) motivated witch hunt, they’d be using it instead.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:31 am 41. Barb:KD, take a deep breath dear.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:33 am 42. hp:applepie said, “I am appalled at the manner in which Obama – (and now his sidekick Chia Pet) – has unashamedly used race to divide our Country – first with Hillary & Bill Clinton and now with John McCain & Sarah Palin.”
YES! MY HERO!!!
the only reason they would EVER take that low road is if they have nothing else going for their platform……….
and they know it.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:36 am 43. Boris:Yes, it’s always a witch hunt when somebody from your party is being investigated, isn’t it?
Too bad for you guys that only the 30% Bush supporters will believe that.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:43 am 44. ZEITGEIST:[...] TO CAMPAIGN in a financial crisis. Plus, a Wall Street analogy from Roger Kimball. But do the numbers support his [...]
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:50 am 45. KD:Some good comments here, ecept by those few who sound not only cluless, but Godless.
The Cult of Obama seeks to blame the G.O.P. for every possible ill — accusing them of unjustified war, encouragement of torture, abasement of civil liberites, unemployment, erosion of medical safety nets, expansion of big government, bloated prisons, imbalance of wealth, and now mortgage defaults and bail-outs. Ha!
But let us forget such vile accusations and focus on First Things. Protection of the Unborn. The Sanctity of Marriage. The Total Eradication of Islamofascism!
A few of you here sound like the girly “cosmopolitains” our beloved Rudy spoke out against at the RNC.
Pity.
Sep 20, 2008 - 6:56 am 46. RE:Te more chaff the Obama campaign throws up in the air, the more they obscure that fact they are George Orwell’s ‘more equal than others’ group (Animal Farm) that thinks they can dictate how you should live you life, how much of your own money you are allowed to keep, and what you are allowed to think. Funny how this group donates so little of their own money to charity are compared to the people they demonize. You see they wan government to do it so that can insert themselves into the middle of it so they can control it and skim their fortunes off he top.
They are dishonest socialists. Don’t let them distract you from their true nature. They stand in opposition to America’s founding principles. Ayers, Dorhn, Wright, Soros – They all destructive malcontents who are out to do harm and profit from it.
Sarah Palin’s crime in these people eyes is that she is a good person. No wonder they respond with the hiss of a vampire shown a cross and wish to destroy her.
Reject the socialists!
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:15 am 47. Brutal:Boris, contemplate this.
Rule #1 – The person fired was in that position at the pleasure of the Governor.
He may have shown disregard to thoughtful process, he may have been friends with the cop, he may have simply spit on the sidewalk. Regardless of whether or not someone likes the reasoning, refer back to rule #1. What is the investigation supposed to uncover that isn’t opinionated?
You see, this is a witch hunt intended to sway opinion.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:22 am 48. KD:Yes! Reject the socialists!
A temptation to embrace Godless socialism has infected this Great land. Only the Goodness and Vision of persons like Sarah Palin can save us.
Socialists like Obama and his spiteful, elite followers seek to punish the Best and Brightest among us! If they succeed, how will our Business Leaders be Free to reinvest the capital and produce the Economic Growth to get us out of this mess?
Let us not give in to Temptation!
Pray for our President, and for Sarah and John.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:26 am 49. misanthropicus:RE: Amos: “[...] It’s true that this race is close and will remain close, there will be no landslide either way. [...].
Amos, here I beg to differ – I think the election will show a significant pro-McCain majority, and while the liberals have already anticipated the Bradley-effect conspiracy as the CAUSE of this, the causes actually are/will be multiple.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:34 am 50. ds:One of them is the fact that Obama is a pasive/re-active person/campaign, and this works against him – the last weeks events (Georgia affair and Wall Street crash), showed that Obama cannot take rapid decisions and is overhedging, while McCain steps up pretty fast to a situation (remember Bill Clinton’s saying “Americans prefer presidents strong and wrong instead of weak and right?”
Clinton’s funny line aside, McCain will be the next US president – and this will ensure the launching pad for the other next US republican president. Ever heard about gen. Petreus?
The polls are all over the place, it is hard to put too much stock in any of them. However, a week or so ago everyone said the nationals didn’t matter when Obama was down, only the state polls mattered. Now Obama shows slight lead in the nationals yet is still behind in many of the key state polls. So, which ones matter? Also many of the key state polls show conflicting results, with either McCain or Obama ahead in the same states. I don’t think there are any conclusions to be drawn yet. My guess is that if McCain is within 5 in national polls and still competitive in the key state polls on election day he wins. I also think that many people will be introduced to the honorable Rev Wright and Ayers for the first time in the next few weeks, which could have a significant impact. The general public was not paying attention to the Democratic primary when the MSM actually covered a little bit of the Wright issue.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:49 am 51. 888:mtraven, real conservatives DO NOT support Obama. If they are real conservatives, they will not vote for the most liberal, elitist, out-of-touch, #1 tax-n-spend senator in Washington. That article you cited supports Obama being soft with Russia because the author didn’t think Obama “will taunt Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest requires it as an ally.” What an ignoramus your pretend-to-be conservative author is. Bush, Secretary Rice and western allies in Europe have done everything they can to rein in Russia, but not one of them can control Putin and his surrogate, Medvedev. And you honestly think Mr. Appeasement Obama will be able to make Russia our ally? Your naivete shows.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:12 am 52. OLDPUPPYMAX:For the first time in the nations history, we will find out if the media can elect a president. The thought is both repulsive and frightening.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:12 am 53. Nine-of-Diamonds:“The polls are all over the place, it is hard to put too much stock in any of them. However, a week or so ago everyone said the nationals didn’t matter when Obama was down, only the state polls mattered.”
I posted on another thread my theory as to why this is happening: polling services are not weighting their sample sizes properly. One week they oversample Republicans; the next week they oversample Democrats. There is a very good article on this at Wizbang:
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/19/how-liberal-trolls-are-working-to-get-mccain-elected-president.php#more
The author concludes that despite O’s current “lead” there are some long-term trends that do not bode well for him. Still, I woudn’t describe his campaign as “desperate” IMO – to give a rough estimate, I think he has a slightly better than 50% chance of winning, mainly due to current financial problems being blamed on the Republicans.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:16 am 54. Rotwang:Obama’s fine. He’s always calm and often laughing, whereas John McCain always looks like an enraged hamster who’s run out of food pellets, railing about whatever dire catastrophe is happening today that only his experience as a POW can solve, along with some help from Phil Gramm.
As for Palin, the more she talks the less credible she becomes. Even Sean Hannity’s unctuously accommodating demeanor couldn’t stop her from sounding like an old Norm Crosby routine. She knows all the canned phrases she’s supposed to repeat, but can’t seem to remember the order they come in, or what subjects they relate to. It doesn’t help that her entire biography is a fiction, and she’s lied about literally everything.
Anyway, the author is over-reacting. And with any luck, Godless Communism will finally kick some ass in November and wake this place up. ;->
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:28 am 55. Andew X:Maybe the GOP should get pointed about the fact that Barack Obama is in fact a Muslim. After all, we have the tape. He’s talking to George Stephanopolous. He said, and I quote,
“What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith….”
Now, I am told there were a couple of things said directly after that as well that could be considered relevant, but, hey, who cares? I mean, apparently that’s not the way the game is played, now, is it Mr. Obama?
I mean, you said it, Barry, not us.
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:52 am 56. Dave II:“It doesn’t help that her entire biography is a fiction, and she’s lied about literally everything.”
She wrote a fictional biography…like Obama???
Please, tell me what is fictional about her past…and I’ll raise you a mentoring by a Communist-party member and a trip to Pakistan on a foreign passport!
If hiding one’s past was a requirement for President…Obama would be the most OVERQUALIFIED candidate in history!
Speaking of which…WHY IS IT we never hear from ANYONE (friends or family) froms Obama’s past early life, and especially post-Hawaii and college…but Sarah Palin has more friends and family pestered and questioned by the media than we can shake a stick at???
The empty suit is not just an empty suit…it’s a Manchurian empty-suit!
Sep 20, 2008 - 9:35 am 57. Bill Bradley:Roger.
Remove the bow tie.
The correct answer to your column is, no.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:06 am 58. Koblog:Take it easy on KD.
He is only following his overlord’s orders to “get in their faces!”
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:08 am 59. mtraven:Rotwang, thanks for that description of McCain. It made me laugh and was worth scrolling through the rest of these mostly tedious and mindless comments.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:23 am 60. Believer:For Obama to win, he must lie about McCain.
For McCain to win, he must tell the truth about Obama.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:32 am 61. proud elitist:Elitist is off the table, folks. McCain is married to an heiress and just received the endorsement of Lady de Rothschild. Mittster and and RudyJules are also not allowed to use said phrase…
Per 538.org, the race is pro-Obama (popular and electoral).
Both sides are guilty of associations with those involved in the building financial crises we are undergoing.
But McCain has been a long-time supporter of deregulation (Keating S&L and on) or surrounds himself with those who lobbied for deregulation (Campaign Manager, Rick Davis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
As of July 2008, Merrill Lynch employees have given $297,000 to the Arizona Republican and $191,000 to Sen. Obama, an Illinois Democrat.
Lehman employees gave $361,000 to Sen. Obama’s campaign and $117,500 to Sen. McCain’s campaign.
And Obama has received a significantly proportionate amount of donations in comparison to McCain from Fannie.
This crisis began in the Clinton Administration (Nov. 1999) and grew reckless under the Bush Admininistration and Republican controlled Congress. Note, the Gramm bill vote was pretty much down party lines and acquired a veto-proof majority.
And before you chant “McCain” and “2005″, he actually wanted to alter the Gramm 1999 bill so that regulation would be handled by an independent agency and out of the hands of Congressional oversight.
Therefore, both parties are to blame.
It’s just that the current Republicans have been wrong about this issue much more than the Democrats have been wrong about this issue.
And while Obama surrounds himself with heavy-hitting financial advisors, McCain surrounds himself with lobbyists and architects of deregulation.
Credit-swap-default is the brain child baby of such lack of regulation. And now there is an additional $700B proposal to congress to get us out of this sorry mess that has boomed under the umbrella of deregulation.
The Obama campaign isn’t desperate. It doesn’t have to be. McCain is a Republican and the R’s were at the healm of the deregulation. The longer there is a financial crisis, the advantage falls to the Democrats.
Of course, who knows what the landscape wil be in late October/early November.
But nothing reeks “desperation” like picking Tina Fey as your running mate, IMHO.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:33 am 62. solomonpal:KD…you are an Obama aigitprop.
Sep 20, 2008 - 10:53 am 63. David:Meltdown?
Wishful thinking.
McCain still has an uphill battle.
Sep 20, 2008 - 11:25 am 64. Believer:The bottom line is the crooks hang out with Obama. And have been since he began in politics. Check out how he and his band of bandits made out in Chicago.
Corruption brought down Fannie/Freddie.
Money from lobbyists bought the DEMOCRATS who fought Republican efforts to correct what was going on at F/F. FALSE reports were being filed by the DEMOCRATS who were running F/F. They were cooking the books in order to pad their pockets.
In short, they stole from their shareholders and now are stealing from the taxpayers.
Typical MO of the Dems.
Sep 20, 2008 - 11:29 am 65. D. Grant Chee----:McCain, Obama-damn– which one should I choose-Oh I got it big MAC, John, yeah John—the American. Silly Hilly is finally gone;
Sep 20, 2008 - 11:46 am 66. Therese:Obam the other loser dem has as many negatives as Hilly the phony. Associations:
Wright, Pfleager, Rezko, Muslim Fairycan’t,
terroist Ayers and etcetera. Add on his BAIPA vote; that even Hitler would have voted yes to, and we see Obama puts himself ahead of life. Soooo, McCain is the last left standing for voters. MAC attack in Nov. Big John will be a great president.
Obama’s campaign is desperate. One sure sign is that they are trying to say that it is “racism” that is holding him back in the polls. Give me a break! People know a phony when they see one and Obama is a phony. He pretends to be moderate when in fact he is an extreme liberal who will take our country toward socialism. Also, there is still a question about his true loyalties to the United States because of his questionable relationships to people like Ayers, Wright, Rezko and a wife who is just now proud to be an American.
Sep 20, 2008 - 11:56 am 67. Bruno:Remember what I said. It is true and part of a misinformation plan is to make the truth look paranoid. Just look around and see the media and DNC parroting the party line. The Christian Religion is evil. Homosexual is normal. Patriotism evil. Rebellion and changing the Constitution normal. Disarm the citizens normal. NRA and hunters evil. The Military and heroes evil. Anti military and ridicule heroes normal. Success and hard work evil. The government owes me normal. Shocking this is right out of the handbook of communist and Islamic terrorism guides to revolution and over throwing a country.. Schools teach the government is evil and socialism utopia normal. Divide the races through agitators and media. Destroy marriage and the families. The state is the parent. Call evil good and smear and destroy good. Look at the Hollywood crowd. McCarthy was right and history has proven it. They flock around dictators and tyrants Chavez, Castro, Iranian, and Syrians. Wake up and vote for McCain if you want freedom. After 40 years of Intelligence service I can just say look and watch. Look at Obama’s friend’s Islamic terror operatives. Rev. Wright preacher of Racist William Ayers radical terrorist. Farakhan. Research the hidden years at Columbia University. Also the overseas trips. Victor Marchenco, Ivan Scholos, Gory Machlinsos. Fhaad Hussan these are a few of the KGB friends who financed and open doors here through contacts. I am not long for this earth. A Terminal Sickness has attached to me. I want to warn my beloved country.
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:07 pm 68. Believer:In fact, failure on such a scale has been attached to Obama, one wonders if it’s complete, unadulterated and total incompetence, or –
if we’re to believe the hype: he’s a brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime, creation –
is this some twisted scheme of planned destruction from an evil mind yet to be revealed?
For now, I’m going with the self-centered incompetent.
It’s the teleprompter that sways me.
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:07 pm 69. D. Grant Chee----:BELIEVER has it, hands down, the truth is the only weapon MAC needs to win against Obama. The Obama campaign is aimed at the dreamer, the immature and those still hoping Santa is real. Big John is the real deal and the best hand fate will be dealing voters this cycle; ask Fred or Romney who strongly support MAC, unlike silly who supports only Hilly. Dem division is real.
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:17 pm 70. D. Grant Chee----:With some voters, 5+ years of POW experience mean absolutely zero. Volunteering for the difficult Annapolis, zero, Completing flight school, zero, flying missions against Soviet SAMS, zero. All experiece adds to the man’s character; but for some it is a zero, they believe in Obama, the zero!
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:29 pm 71. proud elitist:The prevalent thought of our economy – free markets and deregulation – has been championed by the Republicans. Their bills have helped precipitate this crisis. F/F benefited from these bills.
But the Dems didn’t create and champion the philosophy – that was the R’s. And McCain was on the side of the R’s for most of his Senate career in this respect. His campaign manager, Rick Davis, was a lobbyist on behalf of F/F for such deregulation.
More on McCain’s lobbyists:
–Senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann recently faced scrutiny over his foreign lobbying on behalf of the Republic of Georgia.
–Senior adviser Charlie Black was a foreign lobbyist for dictators in Zaire and Angola in the 1980s.
–Frank Donatelli, the Republican National Committee’s liaison to the McCain campaign, has had clients including Exxon Mobil.
–Economic adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer has lobbied for corporate giants like Koch Industries.
–The final two lobbyists are McCain’s congressional liaison, John Green, and national finance Co-chairman Wayne Berman. They both lobbied for Fannie Mae, the troubled mortgage giant.
Two (embarrassing) former McCain campaigners, Regional campaign manager Doug Davenport and Republican convention chief Doug Goodyear, had both represented the military government in Burma.
Finally, Phil Gramm:
As a U.S. senator, Gramm promoted two bills that curtailed regulation: The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Gramm had a prominent role as sponsor and co-sponsor of these bills, respectively.
Add in the fact that that the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve have frowned on increased regulation in the years since those laws were passed.
Wall Street watchers agree that light regulation allowed irresponsible lending and mortgage fraud to go unchecked.
The Commodity Futures Modernization Act in particular has been singled out for spurring the growth of poorly understood, unregulated securities such as credit default swaps, which have been getting a good portion of the blame for the financial crisis of September 2008.
—
Obama’s lobbyist ties are more on the state/local level than the federal level:
–Obama’s national co-chair,South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, founded the state-based lobbying firm Hodges Consulting Group in 2003.
–Likewise, his New Hampshire co-chair is a state lobbyist for the pharmaceutical and financial services industries.
–Obama has taken $15 million from lawyers/law firms, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and many of those firms employ lobbyists. Clinton has taken slightly more from this group ($15.4 million) while McCain has taken less ($4.2 million).
–Tom Daschle, former SD senator and a national campaign co-chair, is not himself a federally registered lobbyist, but he works at Alston & Bird, a firm that employs federally registered lobbyists and raked in $2.6 million in lobbying fees in 2004.
–A bunch of former lobbyists have helped out—including deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand, Teal Baker, and Emmett Beliveau—who could easily slip back onto K Street once the campaign is over. Obama now has 14 bundlers who are also federally registered lobbyists, but they are currently inactive, according to Public Citizen.
NOTE: McCain has 70 bundler-lobbyists.
While both are tied to lobbyists, McCain’s have been more detrimental to America’s economy than Obama’s.
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:36 pm 72. Believer:Some might not like the laws Republicans make.
Others don’t like the laws Democrats break.
Sep 20, 2008 - 12:52 pm 73. Herb:“I’d say team Obama is nearing a meltdown.”
The AP says McCain is the one nearing a meltdown: “Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained strong. It also left him defending his support for privately investing Social Security money in the same markets that had tanked earlier in the week.”
Oh, I know, I know: it’s the AP, another untrustworthy MSM outlet. Obviously I should trust the partisan…
Sep 20, 2008 - 1:49 pm 74. Ed Wallis:“Herb” you ARE indeed WRONG.
AP also withheld information from the government in trying to find the latest WATERGATE BREAK-IN culprit regarding Gov. Palin….this being 2008, it was online, but all the same an OBAMA-RELATED BREAK-IN.
EAT your sarcasm.
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:02 pm 75. Believer:Who has earned our vote of confidence?
It becomes a matter of character. And trust. This is true for all relationships. That’s what we need to have with our next President: a relationship of trust.
Going forward, we have to consider who has been honest and open with us about his history and record — who he is and where he stands on issues.
We should consider who has shown he’s been willing to sacrifice – even his life – for others and for what he believes.
We should consider who has made decisions based on principle — not on how they might serve self — and stuck to them even when popular opinion grew greater against him.
We should consider the character of those with whom each man chooses to associate — and where those associations have led.
And we should consider the man who has erred – for we all do – and the humility with which he willingly admits his error.
These are uncertain times — both foreign and domestic — and we have no idea what lies ahead for our nation and for the world.
We have to be assured we have in leadership a man who is able to make a decision. One he will make for the greater good. Not out of self-interest.
We can’t afford to have someone who makes poor decisions – or none at all – because self-interest is his guide, or because he lacks a moral compass.
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:07 pm 76. robert Hurley:This passes for astute analysis? It is so far fetched as to be laughable
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:14 pm 77. Evil Pundit:I think the desperation clearly shows in the trolling from Obama supporters.
Sep 20, 2008 - 2:36 pm 78. cedarford:KD – He instantly recognized an uniquely American Valkyrie!
A Warrior Queen who gazed unblinking across the snowy wastes to Russia, the Evil Empire that seeks to rise again, and said NEVER!
She is unique in the eyes of American men and women — both a Moral Avatar and a Commodity!
As Rush so manfully put it, HOT DAMN!
Oh Sarah! If and when the day comes when you alone must lead us, I will not blink! I know you will carry the Vision of W the Innocent forward. To Victory!
I think you have been jerking off to too many “warrior chick” movies, KD!
And you are indeed a pretentious, pedantic jackass.
========================
D. Grant Chee—-:
With some voters, 5+ years of POW experience mean absolutely zero.
Insofar as being captured by authorities and thrown behind bars and suffering, suffering! means very little about gaining Presidential skills for a POW. Same for a crack dealer nabbed and who spent 5 years within a crappy jail sometimes getting beaten, with a few minor stabbings thrown in.
Outside the basic “suffering behind bars” biz, McCain can say it was a time that showed his bravery and character. That counts a bit…but in no way is it in itself anywhere near to encompassing Presidential skills. His time as a sucessful CO of a major Naval airwing is more germaine to being President than how much dysentary he had in 1968.
The public should never conflate Victimhood and suffering! with being a credential. Or victimhood and suffering! somehow being criteria in itself to be considered a hero – something the public has been warped into doing for convicts returning home from prison to the hood, seeing kids with serious diseases as heroes, thinking a politicain with a handicap or affliction must be a better choice than a healthy candidate.
Only if they did something with their victimhood we admire, should be in turn admire them, and honestly say that just because we admire them does not mean that victimhood made them magically more qualified for office or job position than a non-victim who may have better abilities.
========================
proud elitist:
Whats your point?
Yes, lobbyist X,Y, Z in either campaign represented as their job, for pay – bad, bad company or country A, B, or C.
Meanwhile in both campaign, lawyers X,Y, Z did the job they were paid for at some point and represented murderer A, cleaned up contractual paperwork for Bank B which had odious dealings over in another department with a Drug King, and speciously sued respondent C for big bucks on behalf of client who hired them to do so to help pay the bills.
Explain to me why lawyers and lobbyists are morally required to represent only morally upstanding clients as part of their jobs?
While we are at it, do you also want to explain why political consultants and speechwriters and campaign managers now for Obama X or McCain Y should be condemned because they represented vile, odious candidates A, B and C for pay, in the past?
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:04 pm 79. Herb:Ed Wallis, we’ve gone toe-to-toe in these threads before, and I have to say, I can’t take you seriously.
While it’s true that A) the perpetrator is the son of a Democrat and B) Obama is a the Democratic nominee for president, I don’t how you can call this an “OBAMA-RELATED BREAK-IN.”
That’s not logic, Ed. That’s partisan nonsense.
Believer, I have considered all the things you mentioned, and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama.
Evil Pundit, your logic is impeccable too. Obama’s desperation is indeed proved by my trolling. What does your comment prove about McCain? That he has no clue what’s going on in this world?
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:43 pm 80. KD:“He is only following his overlord’s orders. . .”
I don’t know about you, but I take my marching orders from Jesus Christ! Not the false, Marxist Christ of Barack Obama and the Rev. Wright, but the true, Warrior Christ of George W. Bush and Sarah Palin!
Sep 20, 2008 - 3:56 pm 81. Amos:I know it’s presumptions of me to tell you what to do on your own blog, but ban KD, he’s really not funny.
Plus he’d like to be banned, he can go and boast to his imaginary friends on DU how his insightful wit and cutting parody was TOO MUCH for those poor blundering conservatives and they just had to wall him out! Yes folks, we cannon compete with teh outrageous funny of an ignorant, white, liberal brat spamming a comments board with what he thinks a Christian conservative sounds like! Give the idiot what he wants.
He’s an imbecile and he’s contributing nothing.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:02 pm 82. jlpillinois:Excellent post.
I just wish the MSM was honest. This story will never be told on the MSM – now the sex ed ad was plastered all over the MSM as being dishonest.
The View called McCain a liar to his face over that ad. I Murdoch would buy CBS ABC and NBC, and stop their nonsense.
Thank you for the truth – even though it won’t be told to enough people.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:15 pm 83. rcd33b:I fear that inspite of the many indiscretions of the Obama campaign and their attacks done in extremely poor taste and in an unethical manner (assuming there are any ethics in politcal campaigning), the MSM is going to win this election for Mr. Obama. The fact of the matter is, the general population is not getting the facts and the truth about Obama and are getting nothing but lies and distortions about Mr. McCain and Gov. Palin. This will be an election won purely by propoganda done in the masterful style of the Nazis and Communists. If the truth were known, Obama never would have been taken seriously as a candidate to begin with. The left wing elite will get Mr. Obama elected and the darkest days of America will begin. Maybe I’m underestimating the desire and will of the American public to dig out the truth about Obama, but I don’t think they will. Many of the publications, columns and opinions about Obama are on conservative-only sites not looked at by many Americans and is not getting out to the general public. A lot of it is preaching to the choir. The deck is stacked in Obama’s favor, in spite of what the polls say. We who know; know. Those who don’t know, the general public, are too tied up in economic trials facing their family that they barely have time to research politics and continue to get their news and therefore have their opinions swayed in news snippets from the MSM while running their lives. I am praying and hoping I’m wrong, but I believe it will be literally a mircale of the heavenly type for Obama to be defeated in this election. Four years from now, the American public may have learned a hard lesson, but the damage which will have been done by a Democratic White House and Hill will take years to undo, if ever.
Sep 20, 2008 - 5:51 pm 84. Javelin:KD is right, Limbo said Palin’s critics are enemies of God and individualism, evil. So Palin must be a god ncarnate
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:40 pm 85. JMS2008:Rev Debbie Gibbons,
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:45 pm 86. Javelin:If you’re even still reading these comments — your question about the email hacker reveals how little you are paying attention to this matter. The hacker has been identified as the son of a democratic congressman from Tennessee. The son has had contact with David Plouffe (Obama’s campaign manager, in case you didn’t know). That’s why people think that Obama had something to do with it. We shall see. The federal authorities are investigating. You might try doing some independent research on line just so you don’t miss anything.
The economy is going down the crapper, with no small help from the usual crony incompetence of that great Red State thinker and leader W. But we have more important things to talk about, someone broke into Palin’s Yahoo account. What kind of fool does important business with a freebie common as muck email account like that? Someone made a TV ad that slightly misrepresented a fat loudmouth who calls people he disagrees with girlish or feminine product names like I did in 8th grade.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:47 pm 87. CR:KD – are you being sarcastic or do you believe in what you are preaching? I’m a godless heathen and a supporter of McCain and Palin. I’m a red-blooded American, anti-communist, and I love my guns. I don’t fault you for your beliefs – believe whatever you want but do you fault me for my lack of belief in a church or god? I’m not trying to start a flame war, I’m simply curious. Frankly, I find some of your comments to be quite humorous!
As far as a campaign meltdown goes, only time will tell but from my perspective Obama is heading for a large meltdown. I don’t think any political candidate for any office will appeal to me on every level and I will always disagree with some aspect of their platform. The only time that would not be true is if I was running for a public office. One must weigh the good with the bad and I can’t find anything good about Obama. It doesn’t matter what he says or does, I will never get past his lack of experience and his associations with domestic terrorist Ayers and his vehemently racist church. There’s more bad under Obama’s rock such as the Annenberg challenge and Tony Rezko. Obama has yet to answer for those bad things but his day will come and there isn’t a teleprompter in the world that can save him from those questions.
Sep 20, 2008 - 7:59 pm 88. Javelin:WTG Amos
Sep 20, 2008 - 8:37 pm 89. Amos:Someone upset you, ban him! You sound like the troll pretending to be some fossilized con.
Fine, in retaliation, I’ll write a post pretending to be some caricature idiot leftist:
“It cannot be true, they say. The universe must joking, would not dare dump such a homophobic, Creationist evangelical nutball on us, this anti-choice, God-pandering woman who’s the inverse of Hillary, this woman of deep inexperience who abhors birth control and supports abstinence education and shoots exhausted wolves from helicopters and hates polar bears and actually stands for everything progressive women have resented since the first pope Swift-Boated Eve.”
Oh wait, that’s an actual quote from a Mark Morford Column.
Sep 21, 2008 - 1:53 am 90. Deus:KD: the fringe of the fringe.
You believe in God. Which one? You sound pretty Islamic yourself.
I don’t mind you being pretty loud and funny, and I don’t mind that there are very few like you.
Amos:
Sep 21, 2008 - 3:50 am 91. Rubicon:I can’t believe someone described SaPa so well.
(I know Morford is quite crazy, but truthful)
In the final analysis, its not about name calling, its about the plans each have.
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:23 am 92. Typical White Person:Not the speech plans. The ones that articulate the real long term intentions of the candidates.
If McCain is not raising taxes, how does he pay for whatever he plans?
If Obama is raising taxes, for what?
One thing is sure….. few Americans, once they understand the reach more government would have in their lives, want more government.
And the concept someone thinks communism or socialism is better than our current system, all I can say is the indoctrination of our children must be working.
From Hugo Chavez, to Kim Jong Ill, to Castro (either one of them), to Mugabe, to so many others, all socialism or communism means, is oppression & a lousy life for average citizens.
The elite will do well. Those with connections will do well. Those with money, will do well. But average Americans will suffer & they will become the world’s new oppressed peoples.
That is what we are fighting against, no matter what party you subscribe to.
Good grief. I was looking for some info on the economy and how it tracks back to Jimmy Carter and balloned under Clinton administration (I don’t mean that in a good way) and I find what looks to be an ongoing war by 2 adult? men. I’m just one of those moderate dems supporting John McCain and loving Sarah Palin. I really don’t care what anyone has to say about it, or who rejects “their party” (that’s always a hoot), but the truth that even the slanted polls can erase is that Obama’s numbers are steadily going down while McCain’s have steadily gone up. Rocket science is not necessary to understand how Obama has a one or two point overall lead, it just takes one question to skew the results. All you have to really look at is how the poll goes up and/or down by how a person identifies themselves politically. Get a grip guys.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:50 am 93. Jennefier:Obama’s whopper
Rome Sentinel ^ | 9/18/2008
Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008 19:18:00 by markomalley
“…Washington lobbyists do not fund my campaign, they will not run my White House….” So said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Tuesday, speaking about an economy overshadowed by Fannie Mae mortgage problems.
Oh, dear. The record tells us different.
Obama received more campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, between 1989 and 2008, than every other federal lawmaker except committee chairman Democrat Christopher Dodd. And Obama outstripped the others after only having been in the Senate for three years. Based on Federal Election Commission filings, Obama received more contributions than 353 of the 354 lawmakers.
Then there is Obama’s other unsettling tie to the mortgage crisis. Obama’s Chicago sugar mommy is Penny Pritzger. She is finance chairman of Obama’s campaign. Pritzger’s Superior Bank collapsed in 2001, the largest failure in a decade. She was an owner, a president of Superior for five years, and, according to the Chicago Sun Times, active in leadership while on the bank’s holding company.
In February, 2008, Asian Week analyzed Superior’s failure. “The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages,” according to Timothy J. Anderson, a whistle-blower on financial and bank fraud, and reported by Asian Week. “The sub-prime mortgages,” Anderson said, “were provided to Merrill Lynch, by a nation-wide Pritzker origination system, using Superior as the cash cow, with many millions in FDIC insured deposits. Superior’s owners were to sub-prime lending, what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”
Other seeds to the mortgage crisis hark back to when then President Bill Clinton super-charged the Community Redevelopment Act, a Carter law to encourage minority home ownership. That social engineering — and greed — helped set up the current train wreck. At Fannie Mae, Clinton cronies Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick lined their pockets with some $175 million and Fannie Mae was fined $400 million for SEC and other violations. To quote the Investor’s Business Daily, “Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government fingerprints all over it.”
Obama’s careful parsing of words would have us overlook the evidence — and overlook that Jim Johnson, another Fannie Mae former president during Clinton’s term, was an Obama economic adviser and, for a time, led Obama’s potential vice presidential search team.
Leave it to Obama to lash out at the free market with his silver tongue in an effort to distract.
Sep 21, 2008 - 7:59 pm 94. bc:Well, Roger, you made the grade with the Kos kids, they deem you dangerous enough to send a bunch of trolls over to bust us up here on the comments thread. I hated trolls until I realized how much they were energizing the GOP base. It’s like having Obama personally send a few goons over to piss all over our wall to wall carpets. We’ll remember this sort of thing, you know? Keep it up KD, McCain should send you a check.
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:19 pm 95. Wadsy:The reason young people are so enthralled with OBAMA is they are of the “Me generation” with no real work ethic, and they think the government is there to give them their “entitlement’s. Let’s face it, if you are for Obama you think your college tuition should be free, your health care should be free, and because you are not rich yet (which they all think it will happen in matter of time they will become rich under OBAMA), you will not have to pay too much in the way of taxes. Under Obama, they believe that even if they are irresponsible they should be bailed out of any housing problem. Hey is he not the powerful Wizard of Oz, hiding behind the big curtain. All talk and gala and no real substance or do. If elected, his solution, just click your heels together and say, there is no place like home. Home would be the way our government use to run before he took office and ran our government into the ground with all his entitlements.
Sep 21, 2008 - 8:55 pm 96. Amos:Yeah, God bless the idiots on the other side.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:11 pm 97. Wadsy:Amos, they are not idiots. They just want to be “indulged.” It is never about responsbility – it is about wanting everybody to have the same. You, me, we all should have the same health care, we all should have an affordable mortgage payment, maybe drive the same car. Unless you are of the elite.. now they are special. They are the Al Gores of the world, the movie stars, the Warren Buffet, the special people. They can afford their special doctors and will not have to ever worry about waiting for care. They will be set and live apart from the rest of us- as we are all deemed to be the same-middle/working class and all. That is what the ones on the other side want. They are not idiots, Amos, they are just looking for the Wizard of OZ to give them hope, and they do not realize that hope comes from self reliance and hard work not from freebies and government outs.
Sep 21, 2008 - 9:49 pm 98. Jeff:What people don’t understand is why some of us are so against the current Republican ticket, but we have an obligation to fight against history of ever being repeated again. Many of us out here are not fighting for the Democratic campaign but are fighting against an ideology.
1) An ideology that completely mirrors the ideology of this past 8 years.
2) An ideology that recognizes the few while completely disregarding the masses.
3) An ideology that believes in taking military action against Iraq, an incident that is completely unrelated to 9/11, without solidifying our claims beforehand. In the present, we have found no evidence of weapons of mass destructions or a tie to Osama Bin Laden. The devastation of this war has cost us over 4,000 of our brave troops and counting, over 1/2 trillion dollars of taxpayer’s money and counting, and over 1 million Iraqi lives unrelated to the terrorists or insurgency.
Cost of the Iraq War — http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
4) An ideology that still believes that the Iraq War is the right war on terrorism when the Afghanistan War should had been the right war on terrorism, where Osama Bin Laden actually was until he slipped into the mountains and into Pakistan’s territory now. The Iraq War also diverted our attention away from the Afghanistan War. We now have extended our resources in two separate places and have heightened our risk to our troops, our expenses, and creating another dilemma that will take quite some time to finalize. The Iraq War will not go away overnight and it is now our obligation to see it all the way through for God knows how many more years. This has also been the most unpopular war in the eyes of the world’s communities.
5) An ideology that believes that we are at our safest state since 9/11, when a recent terrorist plot was still trying to enter Great Britain’s airports with liquid explosives heading directly to us, but thankfully the plot was foiled. While in Afghanistan, the terrorists are regrouping and strengthening and we have recently suffered another high casualty to our troops yet again within this past month. We currently have the least amount of alliances in the world’s communities due to this unpopular Iraq War. True national securities are the ties that bind us to our world’s communities and the ties that bind them to us.
6) An ideology that vetted one of the most inexperience VP ticket in history, from foreign policies to national defense. If God forbids that anything happens to this President if elected and is stricken with illness, this VP will be running the country. For a more compelling look at Sarah Palin’s VP readiness, please look at this link below —
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loUHRv3ipLE
7) An ideology that believes in “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” while we are facing the highest mortgage foreclosure crisis, high unemployment rate, and the largest collapse of our financial infrastructures since The Great Depression of 1929.
This is an ideology that many of us in America are against. Whether this ideology is in the Republican or Democratic ticket is not the main issue but the fact is that America does not want to fall into another 4 more years of devastation. We cannot afford this anymore.
Sep 22, 2008 - 3:49 am 99. surf66:which of Obama’s astroturfing team is on the case today? KD…is that you?
Sep 22, 2008 - 6:14 am 100. KD:Well said, Wadsy!
Better no health care then the same health care as everyone else!
What the left won’t admit is that in America if you work hard and are self-reliant, you can easily afford the health care, the home, and the car or truck OF YOUR CHOICE! And if you can’t afford health care, pay your mortage, or drive a Hummer it’s your own damn fault!
We’ve become a nation of whiners.
Sep 22, 2008 - 7:24 am 101. Ed Wallis:The last thing this country needs is a leveler like Obama in the White House.
“Herb” 9/20 3:43pm – Let’s first wait and see just who paid the PR company to produce that anti-Palin ad “who” is not to be taken seriously, bub.
Sep 22, 2008 - 2:32 pm 102. Wadsy:KD: A leveler??? Does that mean if Obama is elected that I will have the same life style as all the hollywood celebrities. You mean me and Barbara Streisand will have equal money in our checking accounts. No KD – what the last thing this country needs is a socialist in the white house who thinks putting everyone on an equal playing field- social equity is cool. Kind of like you do.
Sep 23, 2008 - 6:49 pm 103. KD:Wadsy: I meant that Obama is a leveler as all socialists and communists are levelers. They want social and economic engineering through a general leveling of society. Not only is such a Quixotic quest against human nature, it is against God’s Law. So I absolutely agree with you, the last thing this country needs is a socialist in the White House.
We must protect the Deserving and see that they prosper, for the good of all. That is exactly what the White House is trying to do right now! Pray they succeed.
Sep 23, 2008 - 8:55 pm 104. FDR:Since Gertrude got mentioned:
“The answer…is no.”
What was the question?
Sep 24, 2008 - 6:00 pm 105. ProgMeister:@all
jeez … I just saw five minutes of Palin’s interview with Katy Couric … it’s … well, just embarrassing
Sep 25, 2008 - 12:03 am 106. Nine-of-Diamonds:I just read the instructional proposal that’s … you know … the subject of Roger’s post? It’s … well … sickening. State mandated views of homosexuality and sexual development being drummed into pre-pubescent kids. Obama’s defenders lied, as usual, when they said it was just about telling kids “not to talk to strangers.”
HOPE & CHANGE.
Sep 25, 2008 - 5:07 am 107. Wadsy:Thank God!!! McCain is scrambling the jets!!!!
Sep 25, 2008 - 6:44 pm 108. Marc Malone:Hey, Prog, I agree. It was pinful to watch. I liked the article that surmised that she is possibly being over-coached. Too much high-level info. Info overload.
They should just train her to admit gracefully when she doesn’t know. Politicians, for some reason, think they have to know everything. They don’t; especially VP candidates. She should just say that the VP job IS conducive to OJT. She could flatter them by taking notes “as a guide to which area to study up on next.”
I notice that they don’t ask her much about the fields she does know. They ask her how McCain would do things, rather than about her own ideas. Maybe she’d do better, maybe she wouldn’t, but I’d rather have some better insight into how she’s done things; how she came to her decisions. Ask a bit about her strengths, instead of just probing for her weaknesses. The whole process is gotcha, rather than giving insight into the workings of her mind, or seeking balance.
I get it. They smell blood and go for it. It’s bigger, somehow, if they can tear her down. They trap her into these things by circulating the nonsense that she has to give onterviews. She doesn’t. McCain should have simply disenfranchised the media regarding her, because she will never get a fair shake.
Sep 27, 2008 - 3:21 pm 109. Robert:Is sen obama telling the american public that warren buffet and the hollywood elite who spend thousand of dollars to accountants just to avoid paying taxes are now willing to embrace sen obama plan to have their money spread around. who’s kidding who.
Oct 16, 2008 - 2:37 pm