Category: Blogroll

Obama Rumors Get Their Own Web Site — From Obama

Trish

When I first heard the Obama campaign was launching a web site just to deal with the false rumors circulating about the candidate, I wasn’t too sure. After all, the conventional wisdom when you’re, say, writing a letter to the editor to refute some dumbass thing someone else said is that you should not repeat the dumbass thing all over again. You should simply tell your side without giving more ink to theirs.

But I have to say, I like fightthesmears.com. It does a nice job of blowing the false rumors out of the water while providing positive information about the candidate. It even invites you to forward any bogus emails you’ve received to watchdog@barackobama.com.

The site just launched so there’s not a lot of material yet but something tells me it will be pages and pages and pages long by November. Unfortunately.

Summer 2008 Forecast: Heat, Weather Catastrophes, and Attacks on the Obamas

Trish

It’s going to be a long, hot summer, especially if you’re Barack or Michelle Obama. It seems like somebody gave the signal that attacking Mrs. Obama could be the best way to take down her husband. A string of attempts to catch the possibly future first lady saying or implying things outside the so-called mainstream mindset is proof.

The “whitey” tape is supposedly being held by, alternatively, Karl Rove, the GOP, a major news broadcaster, or Rudy Guiliani

Right-wing web sites recently claimed a tape of Mrs. Obama would show her blaming “whitey” for various problems during a panel at Trinity United Church in 2004. They explain that this tape is being held by, alternatively, Karl Rove, the GOP, a major news broadcaster, or Rudy Guiliani. Supposedly, in reference to Pres. Bush she said, “Whitey attack Iraq, whitey let Katrina happen, whitey leave millions of children behind.” Except that since Michelle Obama doesn’t talk like that, the more likely quote — if she said anything at all, was probably — “Why did he attack Iraq? Why’d he let Katrina happen? Why’d he leave millions of children behind?” Whatever the case, more than a week has passed since the tape was supposedly going to be released and during that time, the bloggers changed the story from Michelle appearing on the panel with Louis Farrakhan to her sharing the stage with Mrs. Louis Farrakhan. And The National Review, which originally licked its chops at the prospect of a such a tape, now doubts its existence altogether.

But that doesn’t mean the Obama attacks are ending. No, the wallopers are just getting warmed up. The New York Post’s Cindy Adams warns the Obamas of the next salvo, this one focused on the candidate himself: a “Swift Book.”

Publisher, Regnery. Ships to stores, July. On shelves, August. Price, $37.95. Title, the longest in captivity: “Scorcher. The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate.”

The so-called scorching? That his politics-of-change will be liberal politics as usual. That the Rev. Wright thing reveals a deceitful nature. That his inexperience is more dangerous than any threat we have today. That as commander in chief this non-Republican is a serious threat to our national security.

Their projected p.r. TV lineup includes Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes” and “The O’Reilly Factor,” CNN’s Glenn Beck, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Radio: Michael Reagan, Laura Ingraham, G. Gordon Liddy.

So cheesy and yet, so tasteless. But like the heat itself, there’s no way around these machinations and no way to drown out the noise. We’ll just have to go through it, knowing that cooler, quieter times are ahead.

Pensito Review Editor Linked to Subprime Lending Scandal

Trish

All the Republican angst over one of the people on Barack Obama’s vice presidential selection committee, Jim Johnson, and his ties to Countrywide Financial has got me thinking. I’d like to make a confession: like Johnson, I have a “special” mortgage from Countrywide, one of the culprits in the subprime lending meltdown.

“I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages. There is a game that can be played — everybody who is tangentially related to my campaign is going to have a whole host of relationships,” Obama told reporters in St. Louis.

“I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters. At some point, we just asked people to do their assignments,” the Illinois senator said.

True, but I for one would like to admit, right here and now, that my 30-year first mortgage was taken years ago at a rate not available in the current market. Further, the loan on my nearly 60-year-old home would probably face increased scrutiny if it were not for my dogged insistence on making my payment each month. I doubt many people would get this type of preferential treatment, including offers from Countrywide to take out a second mortgage — a cold, hard cash payout — every single time I call them about anything no matter how unrelated, and I, for one, feel better coming clean about it.

Thank you for your understanding.

RNC Launches Lame Anti-Obama Site

Trish

Let the games begin, I suppose. The Republican National Committee has launched MeetBarackObama.com, a site with such features as:

  • The Rezko Judgement, which takes you to a YouTube video put together by no more objective a source than, yes, the RNC
  • Barack Obama’s Resume, which features another video produced by the RNC and deriding Obama’s experience.
  • A poll you where you choose which of the following is Obama’s greatest weakness: a) lack of political experience, b) he’s out of touch with the American family, or c) liberal policy positions. Now there’s a fairly worded poll if I ever saw one!
  • Can We Ask, a page to upload your own YouTube video of you asking a question of Obama. The first question is posed by Grover Norquist, or just “Grover” as it lists him in the credits. All of the remaining questions have been posed by men in Washington, D.C. or Arlington, Va. except possibly for the ones asked by someone named “Anonymous,” who has posted about half of them so far, and whom I suspect to be Karl Rove.
  • A time clock that counts down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds since Barack Obama last visited Iraq. Plus, there’s a downloadable widget so you can add the clock to your own right-wing web site.
  • “Newsfeed” which does not take you to actual news stories, but just to pages assembled by the RNC on topics like “Why Obama Must Go To Iraq,” “Sen. Hillary Clinton on Obama`s Rezko Connections,” “Obama Must Answer Questions so the American People Can Decide,” “DNC Committeeman and Top Clinton Adviser Harold Ickes on Barack Obama`s Electability” and more.
  • Many, many opportunities to donate to the Republican party and to join their email lists.

Visit if you must but it’s a bit of a snoozer. If this is the best they can do, our team should have a pretty easy time of it this fall.

The Electoral College Map Five Months Out

Jon Ponder


ABC News:

Dan Balz of the Washington Post reports the Obama campaign believes it will need to hold every state won by John Kerry in ’04 and then pick off a few states that have voted Republican in the past two elections in order to capture the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Balz writes, “The Kerry map gives Obama 252 electoral votes. To pick up the next 18 electoral votes, Obama will target Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. His list also includes Ohio, where he lost the primary to [Hillary] Clinton but which, in the 2006 midterms, shifted dramatically toward the Democrats.”

Not so fast — The McCain campaign believes the Arizona senator’s potential appeal to independents and some Democrats will shine the way to 270. If everything holds, Republicans and Democrats will set their sights clearly on the other’s terrain, writes Balz. “McCain and Obama offer a rare combination of nominees able to poach on the other party’s turf. Both have proven appeal to independents. McCain will target disgruntled Clinton supporters; Obama will target disaffected Republicans. Women, Latinos and, especially, white working-class voters will find themselves courted intensely by the two campaigns.

The advantage on the latter point goes to Obama, despite the fact that a new CBS poll found that 22 percent of Clinton supporters say they will vote for McCain instead of Obama. But as memories fade of the often vicious attacks on Clinton by Obama supporters — and the reality of a third Bush term under McCain sinks in — Clinton supporters will “come home” to the Democratic Party.

Poll: The Mood in Battleground State Ohio Does Not Favor GOP in November

Jon Ponder

The presidential race now is all about winning 270 votes in the Electoral College this November, and, as in 2000 and 2004, the battleground for that contest will likely come down to either Ohio or Florida. A recent poll of Ohio voters reveals general unhappiness with the status quo, which could help the campaign of Barack Obama:
McCain’s straight talk in Michigan — that the jobs lost there are not coming back — was not well received in Ohio.

Most political analysts agree that the candidate who wants to win the state’s critical 20 electoral votes must convince voters he has the best answers to reverse an alarming trend that has seen the Ohio lose nearly 200,000 jobs since President Bush took office in 2001.

McCain and Obama face separate challenges in convincing voters they can fix the economy. Neither can afford to write off the state. No Republican has been elected president without carrying Ohio and only two Democrats in the 20th century lost Ohio and won the White House — Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.

McCain’s reputation as a free trader may raise eyebrows among voters who blame trade for job losses.

“One thing John McCain is going to have to do is persuade the people of Ohio that he can be a free trader and… that is going to be a benefit for working class folks in Ohio,” said Christopher Duncan, chairman of the political science department at the University of Dayton.

It’s also not clear that McCain’s message to autoworkers in Michigan, where he lost the GOP primary to Mitt Romney, will play any better in Ohio. McCain’s straight talk in Michigan — that the jobs lost there are not coming back — was not well received, said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst with the Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C.

Obama, who lost the Ohio primary to Hillary Clinton by more than 200,000 votes, stumbled in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states relating to the working and middle-class voters hurt most by the bad economy.

Here are the numbers:

[…]

Pressure is on Obama to Pick V.P.; McCain…Not So Much

Trish

Barack Obama has been the Democratic nominee since Tuesday (Saturday if you count waiting for Clinton’s concession speech), and the pressure from the press and pundits is intense to pick his running mate. Talk has been of little else.

If I were Barack Obama, I would be brain-dead by now. Just thinking about how he must feel makes me tired.

John McCain has been the Republican nominee since early February, and there seems to be no hurry on his part or the medias’ for him to select a vice presidential candidate. McCain even invited the contenders to his wife’s Arizona ranch Memorial Day weekend, presumably to winnow his choices. Yet there’s been no follow-up by the press, no curiosity as to what decision he reached.

Pressure on Obama seems to be the hallmark of this campaign.

The day after Obama wrapped up the delegate count McCain challenged him to a series of town hall debates. McCain said the contests could begin immediately and take place each week until the Democratic convention.

“I suggest we agree to participate in at least 10 town halls once a week with the first on June 11 or 12 in New York City at Federal Hall until the week before the Democratic Convention begins at locations to be determined by our campaigns,” McCain said in an open letter to his Democratic rival.

Come again? McCain wants Obama to spend his time, now that he is finally free of Democratic competition for the nomination, not making his case to voters and establishing himself without distractions but sharing the spotlight with John McCain. The benefits for McCain are several.

…the bottom line is that he is begging to be rescued from the big problem his campaign has encountered: which is that the only thing their candidate is good at is town-hall meetings.

This was driven home Tuesday night when the Republicans decided to try to insert a McCain speech into the Democrats’ final primary night. They were hoping to steal thunder from the moment when Obama clinched the nomination. The actual effect was to offer viewers a chance to compare the skills of the greatest orator in modern American politics with a guy who has never really learned how to read a teleprompter.

It would also be a cheap way for McCain to gain exposure he would not otherwise, because of the lackluster fund raising support given his campaign.

McCain also suggested that he and his rival travel together to the first debate as a symbolic gesture.

He joked that his campaign would appreciate the budget savings. “Given our expenses, I know my campaign would agree to it,” McCain said to laughter from the crowd.

Obama has raised tens of millions of dollars more than McCain for his White House run.

Regular debates could help McCain compensate for Obama’s fundraising success by providing him with regular free media exposure.

But what, besides more exhaustion, does Obama get out of it? Hey, I have an idea. How about if, each night during the Republican convention, McCain and Obama have a town hall debate? Works for me.

If I were Barack Obama, I would be brain-dead by now. Just thinking about how he must feel makes me tired. That he obviously isn’t should go a long way toward reassuring those who said he couldn’t take the pressure of the type of campaign Republicans would wage against him.

But still, can the guy just get a little break? That’s all I’m asking.

Minnesota Teens Draped in Confederate Flags Instead of Caps and Gowns

Trish

The Minnesota Three

Three Minnesota teens learned a big life lesson on graduation day. They weren’t allowed to march with their classmates after sticking a huge Confederate flag in everyone’s face in the school parking lot.

A festering racism is oozing out of the cracks in our country, just as Barack Obama is emerging as a symbol of a new way, an America 2.0

Seniors Dan Fredlin and Justin Thompson, both 18, and Joey Snyder, 17, were suspended and restricted from the diploma ceremony after arriving at John F. Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn., Tuesday with the flags affixed to their cars. One of the teens had a flag hoisted on a 20-foot flagpole attached to his truck…

The school’s principal, Ron Simmons, who is black, made the decision to suspend the trio and ban them from the commencement, a decision school district officials affirmed.

“What is not acceptable is driving through the parking lot and waving the Confederate flag for the purpose of inciting a response,” Rick Kaufman, a spokesman for the Bloomington Public School district, told ABC News.

Kaufman cited a pair of state laws to justify the discipline decision, including the students’ willful disruption of the rights of others to an education and their endangerment of students and school property.

At the same time, as Jon reported, plans were unveiled for a huge Confederate flag to be flown by the Sons of Confederate Veterans along the I-4 corridor near Tampa.

The modern-day symbolism of the Confederate flag is a hard concept to express. Jon ended his post, “Time to find a new logo for pride in the South” but the Minnesota teens were hardly demonstrating that. They say that see something non-regional — and much sexier.

Kellie Rezac, a friend of the three suspended seniors, helped organize the unsuccessful protest….

Both Thompson and Rezac acknowledged the opinion of some that the flag is a symbol of hate, but said that there is a group of students in the class who celebrate the Confederate flag as a symbol of some stereotypically Southern lifestyles. “It’s country music, we have a lot of fun, we go mudding,” she said, describing “mudding” as pushing 4x4s off-road.

In popular culture, the Confederate flag has been celebrated — as a hood ornamentation on the General Lee in the television show “The Dukes of Hazzard” for example — but also used to depict racism and racist characters.

“The whole racism thing is a bandwagon idea that everyone jumped on that has very loose wheels,” she said.

Actually honey, to say that flag represents anything but racism — and white privilege borne on the back of the most exploitive, illegitimate, and dishonorable system conceived since the dark ages — is to just skim the surface. The Dukes of Hazzard was a Hollywood image of a South that exists in the minds of people who don’t live here. It’s unfortunate this “makes a better story” version struck a cord with young people like these three in Minnesota.

A festering racism is oozing out of the cracks in our country, just as Barack Obama is emerging as a symbol of a new way, an America 2.0. It’s not surprising that these concealed and unaddressed resentments would work their way to the surface now. The big question is, do we do what we have always done, and bemoan (us) ignorant racist Southerners, or do we face our national shame, our nationwide failing? Only one of these paths leads to the way we all wish these Midwestern three teens had chosen.

Poll: Canadians Would Elect Obama

Buck Banks

You know the campaign has entered the silly season (as if it ever left) when some outfit actually spends money to find out, if they were just for a miraculous moment, an American who Canadians would vote for in the U.S. presidential election. As if there aren’t enough meaningless polls already out there, U.K.-based YouGov surveyed a little over 1,000 of our neighbors to the north, and they overwhelmingly chose Barack Obama.
survey.jpg
According to the pollsters, Obama would take 47 percent of the Canadian vote with 17 percent going to Republican candidate John McCain. What about the other 36 percent of respondents? They either said they didn’t know who they would vote for or they got all mean-assed Quebecois and refused to answer.

It is this last segment of the respondent pool that concerns me. Hey, it’s a survey, Mr. Canuck, lighten up! What could they have been thinking? That if they chose the white guy, they’d appear to be racist? That if they chose the black guy, they’d appear — what? I bet if they had to choose between Neil Diamond and Neil Young as their country’s greatest living musical export, they’d have an opinion.

But the survey findings get even more sinister:

The poll also said 36 percent of respondents agreed the U.S. was a “force for good” in the world, 34 percent of Canadians called America a “force for evil,” while the rest didn’t know.

Wait, you’re telling me that one in three Canadians doesn’t have an opinion about whether their neighbors to the south are a force for good or evil? Come on, everybody has an opinion about that. Just ask the French or the Iranians (answer: evil, really evil).

Oh, they did:

The poll showed that the U.S. was described as a force for good by 25 percent of Germans, 28 percent of French, 33 percent of the British and 49 percent of the Italians.

Thirty-five percent of the British, 40 percent of the French, 27 percent of the Italians and 39 percent of the Germans called America a force for evil.

There seems to be something wrong with these pollsters. They can’t manage to get more than 70 percent of respondents to respond except in Italy, where 75 percent expressed an opinion. Every other country had a response rate in the 60 percentile region. Something ain’t right when more than 35 percent of your pool doesn’t respond.

But at least there was some consistency in the findings. Respondents in every country polled chose Obama over McCain. How little the Europeans want a president from George Bush’s party was evident in McCain’s numbers — from a low of 6 percent in Germany to a high of 15 percent in Italy.

Courting the Scots-Irish: Obama Kicks Off His Campaign in Southwest Virginia

Jon Ponder

The Obama campaign has underscored its intent to flip red state Virginia to blue in November this year by kicking off the general election with an appearance today in the state’s southwestern Appalachian region, courting the votes of the Scots-Irish, a group that voted against him in huge margins in Democratic primaries in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania:

Obama won the Virginia primary [on Feb. 12] by a 64-35 margin, but he lost overwhelmingly to Hillary Clinton in the state’s rural Ninth Congressional District by 33 points, one of the first signs of a pattern of vulnerability among white working-class voters that continued to nag him throughout later primary states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

David “Mudcat” Saunders, the Roanoke-based political strategist who has advised prominent politicians on how to reach out to rural voters, said southwest Virginia is “a logical place for him to start” because Obama will need to appeal to those voters not just in Virginia, but in other crucial battleground states.

“If Virginia truly is in play, it’s a practical move for him because he can get the western Pennsylvania bunch, the southeast Ohio bunch,” Saunders said. “It’s the same region. It’s the same bunch of people, they just live in different states.”

“These are the people around the country who decide the president of the United States, and they are neglected,” he added. “The Republicans take them for granted, and the Democrats don’t try to come get ’em. God bless Barack Obama for for trying to go get ’em.”

Obama will be campaigning in Bristol with former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat who did well in Virginia’s southern mountains. Warner is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by John Warner, a Republican. No word whether Sen. Jim Webb, a leading advocate of Scots-Irish culture, will campaign with Obama.

Both Webb and Warner have been mentioned as possible running mates for Obama.