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We are down to the wire folks with only seven days until election day. In that seven days we can expect McCain, Palin and the GOP to throw as much slime and diversion as they can muster to try to scare, terrorize and fool voters into voting for them.

We can’t let them get away with it. Not this time. Not this year. Not when so much is at stake.

I know that some of you are just ready for this election to be over. But, we are at a transformative moment in our country’s history where we can make a break from the failed politics of fear, hatred and division as practiced by Bush, Cheney, McCain and Palin.

Rather than offer solutions to deal with the financial, healthcare, energy and climate crises we are facing McCain, Palin and their supporters have tried to convince us that Sen. Obama is a closeted Muslim who is BFFs with terrorists, hates America and wants to teach six year olds about sex. None of that is true, of course, but that’s what you do when don’t have proposals to effectively deal with the challenges facing our country.

On the issue of LGBT civil rights, the differences between Obama and McCain could not be more stark.

As I pointed out in my posts, Gays Won’t Let Friends Vote McCain, No Way. No How. No McCain/Palin. and The LGBT Case for Barack Obama:

Barack Obama:

• supports an inclusive ENDA
• supports the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act
• supports the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
• supports the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act
• opposes state constitutional amendments banning marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships

John McCain:

• opposes basic civil rights protections for LGBT Americans
• supports the ban on openly gay Americans serving in the military
• opposes gay adoption
• would appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe v Wade

In these seven last crucial days, please help get out the vote for Barack Obama.

With a week to go before election day, Sen. Barack Obama delivers his “closing argument” as to why we should elect him as our next president.

John McCain, Sarah Palin and the GOP will throw every bit of slime and diversion they can muster to try to scare, terrorize and fool voters into voting for them. We have to expose their lies and continue to talk to voters about why a victory by Sen. Obama is so crucial for us as LGBT people and for the country.

Gird your loins folks because the political sh-t is really about to hit the fan.

Over the next next days we can expect the McCain campaign to unleash an unprecedented wave of slanderous attacks and lies aimed at attacking Sen. Barack Obama as un-American, terrorist-loving Muslim on a mission from Iran to destroy America. And, let’s not forget that Obama is BLACK.

McCain and his Rovian henchmen are hoping that by appealing to the most base fears of low-information white voters that they can squeak out a narrow victory or at the very seriously damage Obama should he become president. To lead this effort, McCain has hired three masters of political destruction who helped to torpedo McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000 by spreading the lie that McCain’s adopted daughter was really his love child fathered with a Black prostitute.

Here is McCain in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace defending his campaign’s use of robocalls, a tactic McCain called “hate-filled” in 2000:

These calls are so offensive that Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine asked that the campaign cease running the calls in her state.

A group supporting McCain is now raising funds to air a radio ad targeting Black voters in swing states claiming that Sen. Obama is a slumlord who wants to “create a fund that gives his slumlord buddies $500 million a year.” This ad by the National Black Republican Association has no basis in truth, but as Sen. Obama pointed out a while back “the Straight Talk Express seems to have lost a wheel.”

The GOP effort to demonize the voter registration work of ACORN is already in full effect with McCain himself claiming that the group which is focused on building political power for low-income communities “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy. ” The GOP’s smear campaign against ACORN has resulted in the group receiving hate-filled messages like this:

Hi, I was just calling to let you all know that Barack Obama needs to get hung. He’s a fucking nigger, and he’s a piece of shit. You guys are fraudulent, and you need to go to hell. All the niggers on oak trees. They’re gonna get all hung honeys, they’re gonna get assassinated, they’re gonna get killed.

We have also seen the McCain campaign compare Sen. Obama to Hitler, a McCain supporter attack a reporter, an Obama-labeled ghost hanged in effigy in man’s yard and shouts of “kill him” when Sen. Obama’s name is mentioned at McCain/Palin rallies.

A recent New York Times editorial warned that the McCain campaign had moved “into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia.” And that’s just the beginning of what we can expect. The next 15 days will see McCain with no sense of decency appeal to id of American electorate.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo accurately points out:

Stripped down to its components McCain’s message to voters is this: “Don’t forget. He’s definitely black. And he may be a terrorist.” That’s the message. The nuts and bolts is a concerted effort to keep Democrats from voting — through intimidation, by striking new voters from the rolls, which is going to happen to lots of them, clogging polling stations to create delays that keep late day (predominantly) Obama voters from voting altogether. Smears in the air and voter suppression on the ground.

What we are fighting for is not just the election of Barack Obama as our next president. We are fighting to break the stranglehold that the right-wing extremist base that is the Republican Party has had on our national politics for far too long.

I don’t remember counting down the days before an election the way I’m doing this year. Others are doing the same thing. Last Friday night outside DC’s Lincoln Theatre, as fans arrived for the Reel Affirmations film festival, I found an old friend who was a proud Hillary Clinton supporter selling Obama Pride t-shirts. The crisp autumn air has brought Democrats the smell of victory.

We’re a long way from last January. Back then, a prominent, progressive gay blogger asked me whom I supported for President. “Obama,” I replied. He was incredulous. “Do you really think a black man can get elected?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I said, “but I plan to vote for him.” “Most white people will never vote for him,” he assured me. One of many satisfactions from an Obama victory will be the disposal of smug dismissals like that one.

Of course, there are still naysayers. Some gay conservatives have taken to accusing Obama’s gay supporters of neglecting the California No on 8 campaign by donating instead to Obama, as if we cannot do both. I sure hope those critics have given No on 8 all the money they would otherwise have given John McCain.

Another conservative charge is that Obama will be to blame if Prop 8 wins, because polling suggests that the increased African American turnout for Obama will break disproportionately against marriage equality. These critics avoid mentioning the salient fact that the same poll shows Democrats breaking in favor of marriage equality, and Republicans against. Instead of exploiting ballot initiatives for cynical sniping, the Nobamacons should be educating their fellow conservatives about the concept of equal protection of the law.

Speaking of conservatives, it is satisfying to see so many of the most illustrious abandon the McCain ship. McCain’s operatives still seem not to have noticed that their over-the-top attacks fall flat because they are so at odds with the Barack Obama that people have been watching for two years. Last week, Sacramento County Republicans removed a call to “Waterboard Barack Obama” from their website after their own state party leaders were offended. Others inevitably get into the act, like blogger clifylq at LiveJournal.com, who stated in August that “Obama is a Gay Muslim.”

The lunar-orbit quality of such attacks was captured on Saturday Night Live when the McCain Rally Lady wandered onto the set declaring that Obama “is 50 percent Egyptian, he’s going to change the White House to a pyramid.” The desperate, tone-deaf hatefulness of the right-wing robocalls and ads perfectly illustrates the scorched-earth politics voters want to change.

Not long ago, many Democrats feared Obama’s preternatural calm would leave voters cold, and urged him to get hotter. But the financial crisis put Obama’s cool demeanor in a new light. Now it is seen as a key presidential trait, while McCain’s shoot-from-the-hip combustibility reminds voters that eight years of cowboy politics have not made them feel safer. Last week, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks compared Obama’s self-assurance to that of figures like FDR and Ronald Reagan, who “rise with an unshakable serenity that is inexplicable to their critics and infuriating to their foes.” Obama’s smooth blend of thoughtfulness and elegance recalls a classic jazz orchestration with Duke Ellington at the keyboard.

Obama has set a new standard for grassroots organizing, his operations in red states promising to boost down-ballot Democrats and help build a governing majority. At the same time, his history of respectful outreach across party lines reflects his ambition for transformational wins instead of the usual petty Washington gamesmanship.

Obama’s more supple and confident approach has considerable appeal after eight years of a president on a mission from God who only talks to people who agree with him. The greatest benefit of an Obama victory might be prying open the ideological echo chambers into which so many across the spectrum have retreated.

Last Saturday night I encountered a couple of young women holding signs saying, “Stop Bitchin’ and Start a Revolution.” I haven’t the slightest interest in starting a revolution, nor do I need tips for creating change from people who fervently reject any candidate with the remotest chance of actually getting elected. The pursuit of power may be a morally fraught business, but romanticizing disempowerment is no improvement.

Lose the drama. Give us Obama.

Copyright © 2008 by Richard J. Rosendall. All rights reserved.

Rick Rosendall can be reached at rrosendall@starpower.net.

Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate and Log Cabin Republican’s BFF, recently said that if elected she would push for a Federal Marriage Amendment that would ban marriage between same-sex couples. That did not sit well with newlywed Ellen DeGeneres.

In this clip Ellen shares how she really feels about Palin and her plan to write discrimination against LGBT people and our families.

We must work as hard as we did when Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were down on the polls and Sarah Palin had just begun winking her way into the hearts of (male) right-wing ideologues. That’s why you should read the following and do all that you can to get out the vote for Obama and Biden on November 4.

TOP 5 REASONS OBAMA SUPPORTERS SHOULDN’T REST EASY

1. The polls may be wrong. This is an unprecedented election. No one knows how racism may affect what voters tell pollsters—or what they do in the voting booth. And the polls are narrowing anyway. In the last few days, John McCain has gained ground in most national polls, as his campaign has gone even more negative.

2. Dirty tricks. Republicans are already illegally purging voters from the rolls in some states. They’re whipping up hysteria over ACORN to justify more challenges to new voters. Misleading flyers about the voting process have started appearing in black neighborhoods. And of course, many counties still use unsecure voting machines.

3. October surprise. In politics, 15 days is a long time. The next McCain smear could dominate the news for a week. There could be a crisis with Iran, or Bin Laden could release another tape, or worse.

4. Those who forget history… In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote after trailing by seven points in the final days of the race. In 1980, Reagan was eight points down in the polls in late October and came back to win. Races can shift—fast!

5. Landslide. Even with Barack Obama in the White House, passing universal health care and a new clean-energy policy is going to be hard. Insurance, drug and oil companies will fight us every step of the way. We need the kind of landslide that will give Barack a huge mandate.

If you agree that we shouldn’t rest easy, please sign up to volunteer at your local Obama office by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/obama/office.html?source=blog&id=14534-4287560-uoUVCox&t=1

In an interview with Fox News reporter Chris Wallace John McCain said that his decision to pick Sarah Palin as his VP nominee was a “cold, political calculation” to “counter the liberal feminist agenda.”

So much for putting country first.

With little more than two weeks before election day, now is the time to pull out your little black book and contact everyone in it about Barack Obama.

This election is the most important in at least a generation and for LGBT Americans it is even more crucial. We have the chance to play deciding role in electing the most pro-LGBT president in history. And, the difference between Sen. Obama and John McCain could not be clearer.

Allowing McCain to be elected as president would four more years of the kind of anti-LGBT policies that we got from George Bush. Electing Sen. Obama has president opens up the definite chance for us to finally pass an inclusive ENDA and the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and to finally develop a national AIDS strategy.

The Obama campaign’s Hometown Pride outreach program offers this suggestion to help you get started talking to friends and family:

Find five people back in your hometown to talk to about Barack and Joe. When you talk with these people, tell them why you personally support Barack. These are your friends and people who know you - tell your own story.

Think about people you’re still close to, like family members - but also think about people you might not have talked to in years, like old teachers, mentors and friends.

Here are a few quick talking points:

Barack Obama:

• supports an inclusive ENDA
• supports the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act
• supports the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
• supports the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act
• opposes state constitutional amendments banning marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships

John McCain:

• opposes basic civil rights protections for LGBT Americans
• supports the ban on openly gay Americans serving in the military
• opposes gay adoption
• would appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe v Wade

In short, a vote for John McCain is a vote for discrimination against LGBT people while a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for civil rights for LGBT people.

For more information, read:

Gays Won’t Let Friends Vote McCain
No Way. No How. No McCain/Palin.
The LGBT Case for Barack Obama

On Facebook: Gays Won’t Let Friends Vote McCain