Political News: Newspapers Endorse Obama Over McCain, 17 to 2

Good Morning Bloggers - It's amazing, but the journal Editor & Publisher reported yesterday that 17 newspapers across the country decided to endorse Obama over McCain this weekend, and amazingly the only major media I find it mentioned is on the Huffington Post. What happened Drudge, cat got your tongue?

McCain got only two endorsements. The 17 endorsements included papers in six swing states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, and Missouri. E&P is charting every endorsement and the circulation size of each paper. (See more here.)

Monday's Political News #1 - Michael

Political News: New York Times Calls Out McCain's "Appalling" Campaign

Hello Bloggers - I thought this editorial from the New York Times deserved to be reposted here. Enjoy!

Politics of Attack
It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember.

They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.

Despite the occasional slip (referring to Mr. Obama’s “cronies” and calling him “that one”), Mr. McCain tried to take a higher road in Tuesday night’s presidential debate. It was hard to keep track of the number of times he referred to his audience as “my friends.” But apart from promising to buy up troubled mortgages as president, he offered no real answers for how he plans to solve the country’s deep economic crisis. He is unable or unwilling to admit that the Republican assault on regulation was to blame.

Ninety minutes of forced cordiality did not erase the dismal ugliness of his campaign in recent weeks, nor did it leave us with much hope that he would not just return to the same dismal ugliness on Wednesday.

Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult. “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America,” Ms. Palin has taken to saying.

That line follows passages in Ms. Palin’s new stump speech in which she twists Mr. Obama’s ill-advised but fleeting and long-past association with William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and confessed bomber. By the time she’s done, she implies that Mr. Obama is right now a close friend of Mr. Ayers — and sympathetic to the violent overthrow of the government. The Democrat, she says, “sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

Mr. McCain’s aides haven’t even tried to hide their cynical tactics, saying they were “going negative” in hopes of shifting attention away from the financial crisis — and by implication Mr. McCain’s stumbling response.

We certainly expected better from Mr. McCain, who once showed withering contempt for win-at-any-cost politics. He was driven out of the 2000 Republican primaries by this sort of smear, orchestrated by some of the same people who are now running his campaign.

And the tactic of guilt by association is perplexing, since Mr. McCain has his own list of political associates he would rather forget. We were disappointed to see the Obama campaign air an ad (held for just this occasion) reminding voters of Mr. McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five savings-and-loan debacle, for which he was reprimanded by the Senate. That episode at least bears on Mr. McCain’s claims to be the morally pure candidate and his argument that he alone is capable of doing away with greed, fraud and abuse.

In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. He long ago abandoned his signature issues of immigration reform and global warming; his talk of “victory” in Iraq has little to offer a war-weary nation; and his Reagan-inspired ideology of starving government and shredding regulation lies in tatters on Wall Street.

But surely, Mr. McCain and his team can come up with a better answer to that problem than inciting more division, anger and hatred.

Needless to say I agree with the editorial completely. These are serious times calling for serious people and serious campaigns. Republicans should demand better of McCain. You tell me he's an honorable man yet he's gone back on everything he promised in this campaign, especially the part about maintaining civility. I personally have lost all respect for the man.

Wednesday's Political News #2 - Michael

Political News: Factcheck.org Debate Review

Hello Bloggers - Just in case some of you stragglers aren't signed up to receive Factcheck.org's newsletter, I thought I would repost their debate review here on the blog. Enjoy!

McCain and Obama debated for the second time, in Nashville. We noted some misleading statements and mangled facts:

• McCain proposed to write down the amount owed by over-mortgaged homeowners and claimed the idea as his own: “It’s my proposal, it's not Sen. Obama's proposal, it's not President Bush's proposal.” But the idea isn’t new. Obama had endorsed something similar two weeks earlier, and authority for the treasury secretary to grant such relief was included in the recently passed $700 billion financial rescue package.
• Both candidates oversimplified the causes of the financial crisis. McCain blamed it on Democrats who resisted tighter regulation of federal mortgage agencies. Obama blamed it on financial deregulation backed by Republicans. We find both are right, with plenty of blame left over for others, from home buyers to the chairman of the Federal Reserve.
• Obama said his health care plan would lower insurance premiums by up to $2,500 a year. Experts we’ve consulted see little evidence such savings would materialize.
• McCain misstated his own health care plan, saying he’d give a $5,000 tax credit to “every American” His plan actually would provide only $2,500 per individual, or $5,000 for couples and families. He also misstated Obama’s health care plan, claiming it would levy fines on “small businesses” that fail to provide health insurance. Actually, Obama’s plan exempts “small businesses.”
• McCain lamented that the U.S. was forced to “withdraw in humiliation” from Somalia in 1994, but he failed to note that he once proposed to cut off funding for troops to force a faster withdrawal.
• Obama said, “I favor nuclear power.” That’s a stronger statement than we've heard him make before. As recently as last December, he said, “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.”
• McCain claimed “1.3 million people in America make their living off eBay.” Actually, only 724,000 persons in the U.S. have income from eBay, and only some of them rely on it as their primary source.
  

Political News/Opinion: Al-Qaida Claims More Victories Over George Bush

Good Morning Bloggers - I would like to point out how AP this morning is saying a new al-Qaida video is once again declaring victory over America and its allies, and how we are "facing defeat at the hands of Islam." They are saying that our economic crisis is one more example of how they have helped destroy our great country.

I don't know if we should be counted out yet, but I have been saying for years that George Bush and his policies are playing directly into the hands of Osama Bin Ladin and al-Qaida. It's almost as though he's been working from their notes.

"The enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the expanding crisis their economy is experiencing," said Gadahn, in a clip of the message distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, a Washington-based monitor of militant Web sites. "A crisis whose primary cause, in addition to the abortive and unsustainable crusades they are waging in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, is their turning their backs on Allah's revealed laws, which forbid interest-bearing transactions, exploitation, greed and injustice in all its forms." Incredibly, Gadahn, 29, grew up in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles. He's American.

Whether you want to admit it or not, the terrorist scum is right in some respects. George Bush - and his Republican-financed "Iraqi crusade" - has driven us into a scary, dark place. They - along with al-Qaida - have bled our nation dry. The bailout is one more wound - on top of so many others - caused by them. Our survival will depend on Obama's election and his ability to rise to the challenge. It won't be easy, but it can be done.

Monday's Political News/Opinion #1 - Michael

Political News/Rant: Republican Zealots Still Blaming Housing Legislation for Crisis

Hello Bloggers - The Huffington Post has another story about how Republicans are blaming the bailout crisis on minority housing legislation. I know I've been beating this drum a lot lately, but it really makes me angry that Republicans are trying to blame others for their own screw-ups. Their "blame evasion" has become so pronounced they seem to pass the buck on everything these days.

(Read the story at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/01/conservatives-seek-to-shi_n_131020.html)

I challenge my Republican readers to name anything - yes, anything - that George Bush and the Republicans have taken responsibility for recently. Their standard protocol seems to be: blame others, rewrite their history, lie if necessary, and weather the storm. Why don't we call it what it is: fear and cowardice, lies, and more fear and cowardice.

The problem isn't their protocols; it's the lack of storms. There never seems to be a real storm. Nobody seems to get that angry. Did the Republicans castrate us overnight without us knowing? Did they put drugs in our water or food? For God's sake, and ours, GET MORE ANGRY PEOPLE!

Anyway, I will continue to post all evidence showing how the Republicans are being despicable once again in trying to blame others for their incompetence, greed, and deceit.

Thursday's News/Rant #2 - Michael