By Michael Crawford
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.
By Michael Crawford
On Meet the Press moments ago Gen. Colin Powell crossed party lines to endorse Barack Obama for president. This is amazing and follows the Obama campaigns announcement of its fundraising totals for September.
David Plouffe, Barack’s campaign manager, reported the news to supporters via a special online video update. The average contribution was $86. The previous record was $66 million set by the Obama campaign in August. The total number of people that have contributed to the campaign is 3.1 million.
This news will undoubtedly make the McCain/Palin campaign and the GOP go apoplectic. They will unleash a wave of racist, xenophobic and slanderous attacks against Barack and Joe Biden unlike anything we have seen in recent presidential campaigns. Already McCain has hired three of the attack machine specialists who spread the lies and innuendo that sunk McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000. Among the lies they spread during the 2000 South Carolina primary was that the Bangladeshi child that McCain and his wife Cindy adopted was McCain’s illegitimate Black daughter. If they are were willing to go after a member of their own party like this, can you imagine the bile they are prepared to unload against Barack?
This makes it all the more important that for the next 16 days we do all that we can to ensure that Barack is elected our next president. The time for the viciousness of hyper-partisan Republican politics is over.
By Michael Crawford
Cross-posted at Bilerico
That is the question that popped into my mind this morning while reading yet another story about the gutter style politics of John McCain. You remember The Grinch, right? He was dead set on stopping The Whos from celebrating Christmas.
Let’s look at the evidence after the jump…
By Waymon Hudson
Cross-posted at Bilerico - Florida
Disgusting.
That is all that comes to mind when I heard Cindy McCain unleash yet another low blow attack on Obama while stumping in Pennsylvania. Funny how the campaign that kept screaming “leave families out of it” when it came to very valid discussion of Palin’s teenage pregnant daughter and abstinence only teaching is now using their children as political pawns. Here’s part of Cindy’s screed:
The day that Sen. Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body. I would suggest that Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day and see what it means … to have a loved one serving in the armed forces and more importantly, serving in harm’s way. I suggest he take a day and go watch our fine young men…and women deploy, get on those buses and leave with a smile.
Video after the jump…
By Waymon Hudson
Cross-posted at Bilerico - Florida
It looks like McCain and Palin are willing to do anything to win- including inciting fear, anger, and violence in their supporters.
As the McCain campaign has stepped up the negative attacks and smears, the audiences at their rallies are getting more and more outlandish. Shouts of “traitor” and even “kill him“- in reference to Obama- are popping up all over the news. I wonder where these supporters are getting this kind of anger from.
Perhaps it is from the McCain Campaign’s continued efforts to link Obama to Ayers? Maybe Palin saying Obama “pals around with terrorists”? Could it be every spokesperson from their campaign- and their negative ads- calling Obama “risky”?
To quote a certain Alaskan governor- You betcha.
By Michael Crawford
Cross-posted at Bloggernista
Its lines like this that make me more than a little gay for Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos:
Many people will warn against “getting complacent”. I like to approach this potential problem differently — we have a chance to rip out the GOP’s jugular. We can throw them an anvil. We can kick them while they’re down. No matter the metaphor, the underlying meaning remains — we can destroy the Republicans. Now’s not the time to slack, it’s the time to pick things up. We’ve got them in a near rout. Let’s destroy them.
In his post Markos is warning people to expect a scorched Earth wave of negative attacks from the McCain campaign against Obama because of Obama’s rising poll numbers with less than 30 days left in the campaign. In the attacks we can expect McCain to question Obama’s patriotism, religious faith, and experience. You can also expect to see the return of Rev. Wright, madrasahs, Bill Ayers and anything else McCain can think to pull out of his magic hat of political distraction to keep from talking about the issues that matter to voters. Nearly 100% of McCain’s ad spending is devoted to attacking Obama.
What you want see from the McCain campaign is something like this:
I get that negative attacks are a part of the political game and that they can be quite effective. But McCain’s campaign strategy of “attack, attack, attack” is much like the GOP chant “drill, baby, drill.” It is a whole lot of smoke and mirrors that doesn’t address the issues at hand and fails to deliver the change that we need now.
By Michael Crawford
Cross-posted at Bilerico
I don’t mean to offend drag queens when I ask that question, but look at this video from Progress Accountability and see for yourself.
In response to the pathetic interview that John McCain did with the Washington Blade, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said:
It’s 2008, ‘some of my best friends are gay’ doesn’t work anymore. Sorry, we’ve already had one ‘compassionate conservative’ in the White House for eight years, we aren’t interested in another.
Right on Joe!
As you can see in this video produced by HRC, McCain has opposed every piece of pro-LGBT legislation that has come his way. He even supports the anti-gay state constitutional amendments pending in Arizona, California and Florida.
By Michael Crawford
Even as news is spreading across the internet and television about the defeat of the bailout bill in Congress and continued economic turmoil John McCain is getting ready for a massive Hollywood fundraiser on Wednesday.
You may remember that McCain pulled a media stunt last week when he claimed to have suspended his campaign to rush back to DC to deal with the economic problem. Of course, along the way McCain stopped off for an interview with Katie Couric, an opulent dinner with Joe Lieberman and lots of down time at his Beltway apartment.
The fundraiser sponsored by the McCain-Palin Victory California Leadership team comes only a few weeks after McCain harshly attacked Barack Obama for holding a fundraiser in L.A. “with his celebrity friends.” I am guessing that when McCain says “maverick” he really means hypocrite.
By Michael Crawford
Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the McCain campaign’s top surrogates admitted on Fox News Sunday morning that Sen. Barack Obama did well in the presidential debate. Graham claimed in the discussion with Chris Wallace that he was “tired” and did little to try to spin a win for McCain.
Here is an excerpt from the transcript. View the video at Huffington Post.
WALLACE: McCain’s rating on being prepared to be president didn’t change. Obama had a 16-point jump on that same question. Senator Graham, McCain keeps saying Obama is not ready to lead, but according to several polls, voters watching the debate thought he was.
GRAHAM: I think there’s an 18-point difference between who is best able to do the job. We’ll take that.
KERRY: Well, let me –
WALLACE: What you’re saying is even though Obama got more of a bump –
GRAHAM: It’s Sunday, I’m tired. Senator Obama did well. Senator Obama helped himself.
WALLACE: You can’t be tired on Sunday morning, sir.
GRAHAM: Quite frankly, I thought he presented himself well, Senator Obama.