Still others disliked Biden as the choice for Vice President.
All three were the subject of significant trial balloons over the last three weeks, with the most significant being the possibility of Biden over the past 36 hours.
But with the developments today, I am now convinced Barack Obama has decided to pick....
McCain, like his mentor, is clueless when it comes to "geopolitics and the ethnic and demographic problems in that part of the world (Georgia)." I should add that this ignorance extends across the globe: he is equally clueless on the Middle East, Asia, Africa, LA and, of course, the Real America (not the one where a person graduates from the middle class after five million dollars).
McCain, like his mentor, recklessly bases his foreign policy judgments on metaphysical data like that gathered by Bush when he peered into Putin’s soul (or spoke with G-d).
McCain is a moron for his "we are all Georgians" remark. His advisor, Randy Scheunemann, might be a Georgian in the same way that I might be an Iranian if Ahmadinejad gave me $730,000 for a shoulder to cry on. But, like Barr said, we are not all Georgians.
McCain, like his mentor, does not understand that American power is not based solely on empty bluster, especially when it can’t be backed up.
Republicans are sucking in the free world (as opposed rocking in it).
When they speak of the term Appalachia, people are usually thinking of West Virginia, Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee. But the culture and economic conditions of the Appalachian region extend well into western Pennsylvania and southeastern sections of Ohio. All agree that these two states are important in this year’s presidential election. Under many scenarios the voter outcome in Ohio could either give or deny the White House to Barack Obama.
The 2004 election illustrates the importance of Ohio. In 2004 George W. Bush won the state of Ohio by 119,000 votes. Had John Kerry defeated Bush in Ohio, Kerry would have won the presidency.
More multiple point messaging like this please. While Obama is vigorously going after McCain's deplorable patriotism attack, the DNC is just out with this in response to the Saddleback forum:
Host Beth Troutman: "Is there anything from over the past few years that you would have done differently? That you are maybe the least proud of? If anything?"
Rep. Robin Hayes: "Hard, as I can't think of anything honestly, right off hand."
As we reminded him last cycle, the working families of North Carolina's 8th District may have some suggestions.
When I wrote the diary concerning the uncanny resemblance between John McCain's Christmas story and the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the Soviet gulags, I had no idea about the response it would really generate. I figured that people would see it as an interesting "gotcha" story, and that maybe people would be interested enough in it to place my diary on the rec list. Well, I can honestly say that I GREATLY underestimated the interest and I underestimated the feedback, both positive and negative, that it has generated.
Saturday Night’s Political Forum hosted by Pastor Rick Warren was one of the most interesting campaign events this year. It was nice to hear someone from the right argue that it is essential that Americans (both conservative & liberal) learn to argue their viewpoints WITHOUT demonizing the other side. In coming to terms with the idea that we are all Americans (even when we disagree) we build upon the idea that we are greater as a nation together than we are as the sum of our separate ideologies.
A very dear friend of mine is directing a feature length documentary that is soon coming to completion and fruition about a very important but grossly ignored subject.
She was imprisoned, interrogated, and ultimately deported for her work documenting the horror occurring in Zimbabwe. I have been trying in my own small way to assist her with the completion of this important project.
I have asked for and received permission to cross-post her latest blog from Huffington Post here. Following is something that I hope gives everyone a moment of pause to understand the true horror that is happening this very minute.
John McCain has made his experience as a POW the bedrock of his entire political career. Lately he has turned into a noun a verb and POW. During the latest discussion at Saddleback Church McCain made it a point to recount his POW days as his talisman of faith, it was also where he learned to love his country, and the basis of many of his admirable stories and traits. Integral in this story and his POW mythology is the fact that he refused early repatriation to the United States in 1967.
Barack Obama came to San Francisco tonight for a fundraiser, probably his last visit here until the election. So I scraped together the price of admission and went to see him. And had a few words with him. Again.
First, let me say that the event raised a record $7.8 million, the most ever raised at a single San Francisco event.
Second, he made it clear in his speech that he knows what he's up against ("The Republicans are meeeeean" was the way he put it), and he is going to be fighting back HARD. He's heard the hand-wringers and the doomsayers (gosh, d'you think he reads dKos?) and in so many words he was telling them not to worry, he knows how to fight. The GOP knows they can't win on the issues, he said, so they have to fight dirty. And he is ready for them.
There are two very good diaries on the Rec List discussing the possibility that John McCain's story regarding the Vietnamese guard was concocted. At this point, in my view, there is evidence pointing toward that possibility, but the story could be true. While John McCain's policies are wrong, that does not necessarily mean he's not telling the truth here. We don't know.
What I wanted to do is recap what others have researched, giving links to their work, and discuss further research possibilities. I think a fair reading of the evidence is that there is reason for further research. It's such a strong charge to make that I believe we ethically need to be sure.
I was watching the forum last night and decided that since I hadn't eaten yet, I would try to listen to John McCain speak. I was doing OK with the "my friends" and the evil chuckle when I heard him talk about his POW story of the cross in the dirt. That was when I couldn't take it anymore.
Combine the pro-choice running mate trial balloon with his powerful pro-life presidency comments in the Faith Forum, I think the McCain campaign may have just shored up his base without really notifying the moderate, largely pro-choice middle. Taken together, it is quite a bit of skillful politics, which should be a warning to the Obama campaign, that the McCain campaign is not the clusmy campaign of a month ago, but is now a professional, skillful campaign that will have to be reckoned with.
I've been annoyed lately by the ostriches who continue to insist that the Obama team knows what they're going to do, that people aren't paying attention until after the conventions, and that Obama will do the rope-and-dope strategy.
They're mistaken on these three points. From what I'm seeing, especially in tonight's faith forum, that Obama has a lot of work to do in connecting to voters emotionally. While he gave very good, thoughtful answers to the questions that were asked, he meandered in his answers, gave some nuance, and in doing so, sounded like he was hedging.
