This is just too good!

I just don’t know what to add, so I’ll just shamelessly cut and paste from Ben Smith’s blog on Politico:

McCain hearts ACORN

The beleaguered Democratic-leaning community group Acorn sends over this photograph: John McCain, in March of 2006, sitting beside Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek at an event Acorn co-sponsored in Florida.

The immigration event, which other photos show was packed with red-shirted Acorn member, was co-sponsored by the local Catholic Archdiocese, the SEIU, and other groups.

McCain, still spiting much of his party on immigration at the time, was the headliner.

Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s chief organizer, said in a statement that came with the photo, “It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans.”

”We are sure that the extremists he is trying to get into a froth will be even more excited to learn that John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with ACORN, at an ACORN co-sponsored event, to promote immigration reform,” she said.

I don’t suppose this is going to get the widest dissemenation on the wingnut blogs. Oh the hypocrisy!

Looks like McCain was covering his ass instead.

Today, in Philadelphia, Obama thanked McCain for reminding his supporters that they can and should still be respectful in this crazy presidential election. Obama then reminded everyone that McCain served his country honorably and thanked him.

Well, the erratic McCain campaign led by Campbell Brown’s bitch followed up with this little gem:

“The tone of this election is not fueling voter outrage,” said McCain spox Tucker Bounds, “it’s that Americans are frustrated knowing that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes during a down economy and his proposal for a trillion dollars in new government spending are the absolute wrong answers to our economic crisis.”

Well, how bizarre. If I were more of a cynic, I’d say that McCain isn’t holding the reigns in his campaign. It just looks like they’re flapping in the wind. It wouldn’t be too surprising, really, since McCain’s campaign had a complete meltdown early on in the presidential race. Obviously the man has some trouble keeping things together.

But barring any accusations that McCain couldn’t lead a man dying of thirst to water, I’m left with few other scenarios of why they’d offer a big group hug one day and a knee to the nuts the next. The only plausible explanation that I can think of is that McCain was covering his ass. Let’s say some wing nut does go crazy and is able to hurt or kill Obama. McCain can cue the tapes and say, “Look, my friends, I told you to be respectful. I can’t be held responsible for this tragedy.”

Is there another explanation? I can’t think of one. McCain is running such an erratic campaign, it’s a bit difficult to know what they’re thinking.

McCain puts down the pitchfork

John McCain is trying to stop the giant snowball of rage that his campaign created before it gets out of hand. I think he’s far too late for that, but maybe he can say something that will actually prevent people from getting violent. I hope he can.

Why the sudden change of pace? First let’s face the fact that if Obama weren’t as good at handling this as he is, McCain wouldn’t be in the position he’s in. None of the negative attacks have worked. Obama’s numbers have only gone up as it becomes more and more apparent that McCain is only avoiding the issues that everyone is facing on a daily basis. Second, remember, McCain has to go back to being a Senator which means he has to be able to work with President Obama if he wants to get anything accomplished with the next administration. Voting for the position of US Senator isn’t the same as voting for the president. Most people don’t get as wrapped up in the senatorial candidate as they do the presidential one. Now that McCain has made it this far in the presidential race, everyone in Arizona is well aware of who he is. Going over-the-top negative will prevent him from working with President Obama effecitvely and will paint him as deeply partisan and divisive. Both of which will only hurt his senatorial re-election chances. I think that’s a big part of his new turn around to respect. McCain is smart enough to know that, while the presidency would be his dream goal, being a senator, even in the minority party, is still better than being a former senator.

Palin, on the other hand, has a political career that is in complete ruin. Just today the panel investigating troopergate found that Palin had infact abused her power. This whole thing is new on the national level, but in Alaska, this is something they’ve been going on about for a long time. It hurts the McCain campaign a little, but it hurts Governor Palin and her future political career far more. The thing is, Palin’s too stupid to know that she’s up shit creek. It’s clear that she thinks that the best way to get herself into the White House will be to rampage and feed the base’s most disgusting psychoses. I predict we’ll be hearing less from Palin in the next 23 days. That is, if McCain can control her.

McCain/Palin are charging the droids

The furor that is coming from the big steaming pile that is the right wing is pretty interesting, my friends. Campaign rallies are starting to have the look and feel of lynch mobs. They’re exceedingly insular and growing in violence. So far the secret service has prevented anyone from bringing in their pitchforks or torches. So far.

I’m not really that surprised. McCain is losing, bigtime, so he has to pull out all the stops. He fired up the base when he picked Bible Spice (hat tip Tbogg) as his running mate and then she showed her stuff and everyone saw how much of a damned fool she is. She went from having a higher approval rating than even Obama to having a worse approval rating than anyone except Bush. That’s saying something. So now their last shot is to try to get some shit talk to stick.

But it’s difficult not to sound crazy when you’re preaching to the choir about how you think Obama is a terrorist because he spent some time on a board with someone who blew some shit up 40 years ago. Those in the know say you couldn’t be on a board about school policy in Chicago without knowing Ayers. The polls seem to show that, at least right now, most people don’t see this as an issue. They see it for something else: desperation.

But I’m starting to see it as something more than that. It’s not desperation on McCain’s part, he’s lost the election and he knows it. The Palin nomination turned out to be a cancer and has metastisized. McCain’s campaign is in hospice just waiting to die, and the maverick knows it-he doesn’t even have a transition team organized. So, no, desperation this is not. What McCain is doing is laying the foundations of the conservative conspiracy against Obama. It’s exactly the same thing they did to Bill Clinton. They’re working hard turning the molehills into mountains so they can have something to try to slander Obama’s character while he’s in office to try to take away his credibility and effectiveness.

That’s what I believe McCain is doing. He’s been at this long enough to know you win some and you lose some. This is a tough one to lose, granted, but I get the feeling that, at least to those that aren’t his base, he wants to be seen as a gracious loser. That’s why he didn’t bring up Ayers at the last debate (much to the dismay of the conservabots). But what Palin is doing is different. Palin is stoking the fire of animosity. People in the crowds are starting to yell things like “that’s treason,” “he’s a terrorist,” and “kill him!” The base is getting fired up again for the She Messiah’s fire and brimstone. And to be frank, I’m starting to get more worried that things are going to get violent. I really hope Obama’s secret service detail is the best there is.

What are they thinking?

Seriously, what the hell are they thinking? Palin’s been reading too many wingnut blogs or something. She’s clearly in la la land and doesn’t realize that trying to link Obama with Ayers is fundamentally flawed for one and opens the door to her own “pallin’ around” with the Alaskan Independence Party for two.

Just imagine if Michelle Obama was a member of a radical organization that flat out stated they hated the USA, wanted their state to sesceed–violently if required, and even got backing from Iran. Yes! I-Fucking-ran. Imagine how frothy the wingnuts mouths would get if Barack Obama videotaped a speech for this hypothetical radical organization eagerly praising them. You wouldn’t be able to go 10 seconds without hearing how Obamuslim was actually an Iranian terrorist Manchurian candidate who was going to eat your aborted baby and then force you to become homosexual. But do we see any of that animosity towards Palin on right wing blogs? Of course not.

It’s the tip of the iceberg. This McCain tactic with his brainless pit bull is backfiring huge. Right now on 538, Obama’s ahead 345 to 193 and on election projection (a poll tracker with a right wing bias) Obama’s ahead 364 to 174. That’s nearing landslide territory! There’s only one crowd that buys into anything Palin says and here’s a hint, it isn’t the undecideds. Thanks to her bone-headed interviews, Palin is seen as a monumental failure to all but the most crimson of crimson voters out there. What’s more, they’re opening the door at the worst possible time for things like Palin’s association with the AIP, Palin’s witch hunter pastor problems, McCain’s hagee pastor problems, McCain’s friendship with the Watergate fealon and want-to-be murderer G. Gordon Liddy, McCain’s role in the Keating 5 scandal and a previous taxpayer-funded bailout.

And where is McCain in all this? I’ve barely heard a peep from “THE” maverick since he tried the gimmick of suspending his campaign to try to get out of the debates. McCain is no longer the spokesman for the campaign. Palin is front and center making all the news, dictating the strategy, flubbing the answers to all the questions, and generally driving McCain’s prospect of ever being president right down the crapper. More importantly, the residuals are driving people away from Republicans in other races too. People are starting to talk about the possibility of a 60 seat majority for the Democrats in congress. Can you imagine?

So I say keep it up Sarah Palin. Give us all a reason to look at you and McCain more closely. If you want to try to distract from the issues, I say go for it. You get what you give and you and the maverick’s closets are well stocked with skeletons.

Death Throes of the McCain campaign

Well, not unexpectedly, the race is getting ugly. Really ugly. John McCain is pulling out the stops and throwing everything he’s got at Obama. So far the polls are showing that Obama’s lead is actually increasing. There’s talk of not just an Obama landslide but a 60 seat majority in the Senate. I consider both the landslide and the 60 seat takeover to be longshots quite frankly. But that we’re even at a point that we can seriously consider it is amazing. I think that the Republicans really don’t understand how tired the country is of their brand of leadership.

Don’t Vote

Ugh, I hate autostarting videos. VodPod, if you’re going to be useful to anyone, you’re going to have to make it so users have the option of not having autostarting videos. And now back to your regularly scheduled video:

Sarah Palin, politics as usual

Sarah Palin is being spun by the McCain campaign as the experienced maverick and perfect choice for running mate. Palin’s interview with Katie Couric dismissed the idea that she is experienced and this little tidbit from the AP helps rid us of the notion that she is in any way a maverick.

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception — and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

Special favors for a special lady…who just happens to be the mayor. I sure wish I could get around city ordinances. Maybe I’m not a maverick enough. There’s more, though:

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free “awesome facial” she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The “absolutely gorgeous flowers” she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

You do realize that this is a conflict of interest. It’s effectively bribery and accepting bribes. “Favours for favours” as they say around these parts. There’s more of course.

In other news, McCain is stuck with Palin dispite suggestions that he drop her.

Debate topic: Gay Marriage

This will begin my first in a series of moderated debates on my blog. Please read and follow the rules. Remember all arguments must be made clearly and concisely. Long winded speaches and comments that do not follow the rules will be deleted.

The question that is to be argued is, “Should homosexuals marriages be recognized by the state and federal government and why or why not?”

Add a comment to debate this topic.

UPDATE: The flies have mysteriously vanished. It’s like they couldn’t handle the heat. C’est la vie.

Obama wins the debate

The site Five Thirty Eight has been a wonderful addition to this season’s political landscape. The guys over there have been tracking & rating polls as well as running simulations and providing clear-headed insight into the status of this year’s race. In 2004, I was in Iraq and I was constantly refreshing Electoral Vote. But comparing EV with 538 this year, I can see what I was missing.

Nate over at 538 has this to say about Obama’s debate win:

Specifically, by a 62-32 margin, voters thought that Obama was “more in touch with the needs and problems of people like you”. This is a gap that has no doubt grown because of the financial crisis of recent days. But it also grew because Obama was actually speaking to middle class voters. Per the transcript, McCain never once mentioned the phrase “middle class” (Obama did so three times). And Obama’s eye contact was directly with the camera, i.e. the voters at home. McCain seemed to be speaking literally to the people in the room in Mississippi, but figuratively to the punditry. It is no surprise that a small majority of pundits seemed to have thought that McCain won, even when the polls indicated otherwise; the pundits were his target audience.

And make no mistake about it, Obama did win the debate in every category with the group that matters most: the independents. It isn’t much of a surprise, I suppose, that Obama won the debates–even though the liar McCain did put an ad out claiming to have won the debates before it was even clear that he was going to be at the debates. But the numbers he got were pretty staggering. From 538:

The CBS poll of undecideds has more confirmatory detail. Obama went from a +18 on “understanding your needs and problems” before the debate to a +56 (!) afterward. And he went from a -9 on “prepared to be president” to a +21.

This is huge for Obama and it shows how ineffective McCain’s campaign has been against him. People had a few reservations about Obama but wanted to hear about him for themselves at the debate. And when they did, they decided they liked what they were hearing.

After 2004, I don’t like trying to predict the winner of the Presidential race or following those who do predict the winners. So I’ll skip that part. What I will say is that Obama is very clearly in the lead, much more so than Kerry ever was. Check these graphs out:

So far, so good for Obama.

And compare this year’s EV graph:

2008 Election cycle polling graph

With 2004’s EV graph:

2004 Election graph

So far, we’re seeing a race that is drastically different than 2004. We expect that since Bush is so unpopular and the Republican candidate votes with Bush 95% of the time and has stated himself that he has supported Bush on every major platform. What I didn’t expect was that the McCain campaign would be coming off as desperate and angry as it is.

Let’s just say that I’m not nearly as stressed out this year as I was 4 years ago.