Day: October 23, 2008

Joe the Plumber is Pulling McCain Down the Drain

Trish

Poor John McCain. Every time he tries to hitch his star to someone he thinks will help him win the presidency, they turn out to be duds. First Sarah Palin scared the you-know-what out of every sane American, and now Joe the Plumber is costing McCain poll numbers. After a week of campaigning in Joe’s name, McCain is down at least seven points.

A week of campaigning in Joe the Plumber’s name leaves McCain down seven points

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Barack Obama attracting 52% of the vote while John McCain earns 45%. That seven-point lead is Obama’s largest in nearly two weeks. This is also the first time since October 11 that the Democratic candidate has reached the 52% level of support, his highest total of the year…

Rasmussen Reports data indicates that Obama currently has the edge in every state won by John Kerry four years ago. However, of the states won by George Bush, McCain is trailing in four and five others are considered a toss-up.

You have to wonder, yet again, what McCain was thinking when he decided to spotlight Samuel J. “Joe” Wurzelbacher, who currently owes $1,200 in back taxes and is looking to get out of paying more. Joe the Unlicensed, Non-Union, Wannabe Plumber is living proof that Joe Biden was right when he said that paying taxes is patriotic (not, as McCain/Palin twisted it, that paying higher taxes is patriotic). But then again, maybe McCain put as much background checking into his selection of Joe the Plumber as a campaign emblem as he did Sarah Palin as a vice president. And we all know how well that’s turned out.

Al Qaeda Endorses McCain, Says Attack Would Help Elect Him

Jon Ponder

After George Bush invaded Iraq, it could be said that al Qaeda had him right where they wanted him: Entangled in the occupation of a country whose culture he could not fathom, wasting U.S. blood and treasure at an unconscionable rate in order to secure Iraq’s oil for U.S. and multinational corporations, undermining American credibility as an honest broker in the Middle East for generations to come and immolating world peace on the bonfire of his own vanities.
“[A terror strike] will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America.”
— Alleged al Qaeda member
Given all that, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Washington Post reported yesterday that al Qaeda has endorsed John McSame:

“Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush…

In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had “exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy.” It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.

“It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda,” said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. “Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America.”

The McCain campaign — which has gleefully used the fictitious story that a Hamas official endorsed Barack Obama in fundraising appeals — was outraged over the Post’s report:

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