The Des Moines Register has endorsed Barack Obama today, joining the Charlotte Observer, the Baltimore Sun, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and the Hartford Courant, whose editorial board has endorsed a Democratic candidate only twice in 244 years.
The DMR endorsement is oddly enough based on something McCain's campaign has been touting for two years: being tested. Despite endorsing McCain last December as the Republican nominee, the DMR believes that Barack Obama has made it through many hoops in Iowa, such as winning the Iowa caucus.
From the DMR:
First test: winning the Iowa caucuses, perceived by many as an improbable feat for a black candidate in an overwhelmingly white state. But Obama believed in the power of his ideas and ideals, and the capacity of Americans to unite around them.
Eleven months later, after more than 80 days spent campaigning in the state, Iowans awarded him victory. They had heard his soaring oratory and sensed his uncommon intelligence, but they also witnessed much more: the consistency of his calls for unifying around common purpose, rather than pandering to age-old divisions, and the way he remained unflappable and his staff disciplined no matter what tumult the campaign trail delivered.
Those qualities have become even more pronounced this fall, during an increasingly negative general-election campaign against Republican Sen. John McCain and descent of the nation's economy into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. It has been Obama, not the more experienced McCain, who kept his center as events tilted crazily.
Obama has earned the Register's endorsement for the presidency because of his steadfastness in the face of uncertainty, his clear-eyed vision for a more just America and his potential for rallying the country to do great things.
The DMR also liked Obama's approaches to shoring up the middle class by expanding health care coverage and the creation of green collar jobs. Not mentioned in the editorial, but is well known that McCain is against subsidies for ethanol, and that view doesn't sit well with midwesterners.
Like other newspapers, some whom endorsed Bush last time (the DMR did endorse Kerry in 2004), the DMR believes McCain has run an "erratic" campaign.
Worst of all, in grasping for political edge in his choice of a running mate, he burdened his ticket and potentially the country with an individual utterly unqualified to ascend to the presidency. Before choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain emphasized the importance of experience and sound judgment in fighting terrorism and confronting a restive Russia and a rising China. He has also questioned Obama's readiness to be commander in chief. Then he picked a running mate who clearly isn't ready.
Sarah Palin's unreadiness to be President is a common theme in why McCain isn't being endorsed.
he DMR concluded, "An Obama presidency presents the best hope for a unified America that aspires to greatness again."
The Bloomington Pentagraph (which leans Republican) also endorsed Obama, stating similar reasons to the DMR. The Chicago Tribune, a bastion for Republican endorsements, even went for Obama two weeks ago. So did the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, according to Editor and Publisher. Likewise the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Kansas City Star.
Then there is my town's newspaper, the News-Gazette, who thinks McCain can answer that 3am phone call quicker and wiser than Obama. But the News-Gazette doesn't say if Sarah Palin is ready if McCain can't answer that call.
In case you have trouble getting to the video clip, Kos summed the incident up very well this morning:
Some poor white girl, 20-year-old Ashley Todd of Texas, was mugged at an ATM, but when the mugger (a big black guy) saw her car with the McCain sticker, he beat her and carved a letter "B" in her face with a knife. Apparently it was a dyslexic mugger because the "B" was carved backward, but whatever -- it proved that Obama's supporters were violent and craaazy!
Then Matt Drudge takes the story as "true news" and blasts it on his website. (sorry, not linking to it as it would give him more cash for his coffers) He never checks out the story, although to Drudge's credit, he's often said he's not a real journalist either.
In cohoots, Faux Noise, who takes every word Drudge (and McCain's campaign) passes on to them as gospel from the Good book, spreads the story. They don't check the story either.
And guess what? KDKA had to correct the story when the Obama campaign made inquiries to them to verify it the incident:
A campaign worker who claimed she was the victim of a politically-motivated attack in which she was beaten, kicked and cut, now admits that she made the whole story up.
Turns out that the McCain campaign was involved in pushing this story.
John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain's Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You're with the McCain campaign? I'm going to teach you a lesson."
Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack.
Ashley Todd, a 20 year old race-baiter who can't even self-mutilate a "B" correctly on her face. Not cute.
Sounds like Ms Todd wrote to either A) the McCain's about this and lied to them, and/or B) e-mailed Drudge this hoax. Probably both, and either both are gullible as hell, or they knew this was a bald-face, felonious lie. I suspect the latter. I'm waiting for Keith Olbermann to give his daily award for the "worst person in the world" tonight to Ms. Todd.
Maybe this was the October surprise that Lee Atwater and Karl Rove made up, but I'm still waiting for the Osama to come out and say he knows Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright, and has "palled around around with them."
I saw Mudcat Saunders, a former senior adviser to John Edwards, on Rachel Maddow's show Friday night. The context is the mud slinging of McCain's campaign, especially his race-baiting direct mail and "hate calls" about Obama.
Here's the interview clip:
Mucat says robo calls are literally " cheap "(meaning inexpensive) which is why they are used, and to start a whisper campaign of some misinformation.
Love that Mudcat--and Rachel, the new star pundit!
My Grandmother Benny was born and raised in Oxford, MS. I'm sure she wouldn't be pleased, as she grew up with great prejudice, but I would still tell her this is a great moment in history. And I would be thinking of the Meredith family too.
Look at the below chart I swiped from Ezra Klein today. As citizens, taxpayers, or voters (the latter doesn't matter as much to the GOP) our country doesn't look so good after seven 4 more years of Bush and essentially, McCain economic policy. Granted, it's not quite the mess that Nixon and Ford left to Carter to fix, but it's still pretty awful.
McPalin was so bent in helping Main Street this week, even to suspend his campaign. Bush asked the bi-partisans to be our captains shepherds of Wall Street flock to lead the good sheep to greener pastures. And so they are trying, with visions of $700B in their arses.
Meantime, there are others in the bleeding heartland, but the White House's Office of Budget Management believes this is too much to help the foreclosed and unemployed Average Joe because it costs too much money.
Wow, what a revelation!
A 2nd stimulus package is proposed by the Dems and perhaps in the moment of the perception Dems caving in, the WH suddenly has gone back to regular programming after "McCain Faux Populist Interruptus".
Today, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a statement of administrative policy today recommending Bush veto a proposed second stimulus package. The $56.2 billion package, announced yesterday, would extend unemployment benefits for seven weeks, increase food stamp benefits by 10 percent, and provide $50 million for food banks, among other proposals. This afternoon, Senate conservatives successfully blocked the bill, as the motion to proceed won 52 votes, eight shy of the necessary 60.
In the press briefing today, just an hour before the Senate vote, Dana Perino said the White House opposed the measure, specifically citing its extension of unemployment and food stamp benefits as explanation:
PERINO: There’s some elements of the package that have been put forward by Democrats that we do not think would be stimulative to the economy, such as unemployment insurance. The food stamps, we believe we have met the need.
Doesn't any of the Fush ilk observe that perhaps if folks had an extension on unemployment benefits, they may be able to look for jobs longer and pay a bit back on mortgages. No. To quote a non-reality character, " Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" once the Dems signaled they could cave compromise with a bunch of partisans who don't give a damn about the rest of us but their campaign perks and coffers.
Food stamps are enough, if you do or don't qualify...right.
John McCain is allegedly putting country first by suspending his campaign to go back to DC, after not making one vote since April 18. He also wants to postpone the debate tomorrow evening.
Here are the real reasons he's "putting country first".
A McCain aide told Politico Wednesday night that the campaign is proposing to the Presidential Debate Commission and the Obama camp that if there's no bailout deal by Friday, the first presidential debate should take the place of the vice presidential debate, currently scheduled for October 2 in St. Louis.
I don't think Palin is ready to debate Biden, especially as her interview with Katie Couric wasn't one of her better ones. She only knows how to respond to Fox News pundits, who throw her softballs.
“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible with dealing with this mess," he told reporters in Florida, where he has been prepping for Friday's event. "What I think is important is that we don’t suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics," he said.
He also took a real shot at McCain: "Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time," Obama said. "It’s not necessary for us to think that we can do only one thing, and suspend everything else."
Meantime, Congress needs to work for us. Even the Wall Street Journal concurs with this opinion:
Last we checked, the President of the United States was still George W. Bush, the Secretary of the Treasury was still Henry Paulson, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve was still Ben Bernanke, and Congress still had 533 members not running for President who are at least nominally competent to debate and pass legislation.
So count us as mystified by Senator John McCain's decision yesterday to suspend his campaign and call for a postponement in Friday's first Presidential debate so that he and Barack Obama can work out a consensus bill to stabilize the financial system. This is supposed to be evidence of leadership?
And the WSJ editors agree (to a certain extent) with Obama too:
The behavior of both candidates has an air of running for political cover. Neither of them need master the subtleties of credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities in time for their debates. But it would be reassuring to know that they are at least capable of holding, and sticking to, a coherent position on what is now the most important issue of the campaign. When one of them becomes President, he won't have the luxury of pressing the "pause" button at the next crisis.
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McCain and his second string are panicking. Not good in the middle of a crisis nor good for their campaign.
On today's ABC's This Week, George Will validated what I wrote on Friday. It was as clear to him as to me and my readers that McCain did not appear "Presidential" in the midst of financial crisis. The rest of the panel seemed to concur.
I must say I'm impressed with the way Obama conducted his press conference this morning. He looked collected, not at all elitist, and his tone more reassuring. I happen to agree with most of what he said, albeit the devil is still in the details, but that's not what Obama's strength is. It's about the bigger picture.
Then you have John McCain, who lashed out at Christopher Cox yesterday (and maybe deservedly so a little) and said he would fire him, or revised later, "the FEC chairman should resign." FEC chairman? What does he have to do with the stock market?
Then McCain declared that our government shouldn't be in the business of bail outs, even though he supports the privatization of Social Security accounts. (I guess he got the memos from the WSJ and David Brooks). McCain also tried to throw animal parts at Obama, blaming him for the crisis and lobbyists (that McCain has 83 of working for his campaign), but I don't think it will stick.
McCain's an angry warrior, but commander in chief means more than just troops and battlefields engaging the enemy. You have to know who your enemies and allies are. Additionally, it means strategic positioning, both domestic and abroad--done prudently and soberly. McCain's desperate rhetoric jumped the shark today, and I think he cannot exercise leadership clearly in a storm.
There is one good thing you can say about Sarah. She seems to have hit upon something that might bring relief to the hordes of suffering souls with the wolf at the door and their homes in jeopardy: Collect per diem for nights spent in your own house.
Instead of worrying that Obama called John McCain a pig with lipstick, this is the conversation we should be having: what is John McCain's plan to get out us out of Iraq? What is his plan to win the war in Afghanistan and what to do with insurgents in Pakistan? What are we going to do about our abysmal economy?
If you as a politician connect with voters on a gut level, they will follow you anywhere and not fret about the details. If you don’t connect with them on a gut level, you can’t show them enough details. Obama early on, and particularly with young people, connected on a gut level like no other politician since Ronald Reagan.
But in recent weeks, I feel as though he has lost that gut connection. I thought his convention speech contained no memorable lines or uplifting visions. It never got me out of my seat. Forget trashing McCain’s ideas. If Obama wants to rally his base, he has to be more passionate about his own ideas. I have long felt that what propelled Obama early was the fact that many Americans understand in their guts that we need a change, but the change we need is to focus on nation-building at home. We’re in decline. We need to get back to work on our country. And that is going to require strong, smart government.
Friedman's right in this sense: if Obama keeps up with longer hypotheticals in the debates, he will lose indies who aren't certain about him, despite the lies to nowhere that the Rovians spewing daily. Moreover, those lies are putting the Dems on defense when the offense needs to be making a few more touchdowns. Just ask Chris Bowers.
Leah McElrath Renna offers some salient advice for Obama at HuffPo.
One would think that McCain would understand retired persons. But in listening to him on C-SPAN in addressing members of the AARP, it's crystal clear that he's been living in too many houses. For crying out loud, in talking about health care and keeping their homes, he suggests getting 30 year mortgages at current values of their homes. What planet does he live on? Many of those folks can't afford to pay for the differences between what medicare pays and doctor bills, as well as prescriptions with the dumb donut rule even with their homes paid off.
I noticed the crowd was lukewarm to him, and most of them were not far from his age.
Obama Could Almost Win with These Special Campaigners
Last night was the best night in comedy. It was akin to a grand slam in a baseball game. The RNC Convention gave much fodder and then some more to the writers of the sharpest deliverers of irony. No, it wasn't drip drip last night, it was like a transfusion of wit. There is so much to post...and so little space.
I'm posting the opening segment and New Rules segments of Bill Maher's show last night. He was the 4th batter with the others on base: Michael Moore, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert. Later, I will look for Stephen Colbert's and post it as well. I'm not certain the segment with David Patterson will be up as that was the funniest one last evening. I've already posted Jon Stewart, and will update the Michael Moore post with videos later.
Be prepared to have a lot of new laugh lines around your mouth.
Bill Maher is Putting Country First.
Well, I'm not so certain Obama could win with these great comedians, but they are the only ones who can punch at the eerieness of a McSame/Palin values ticket.
With interest, which diminished as the evening dragged on, I watched John McCain give the "speech of his life" last night. If the "speech of his life" meant that he recalled the bitterness of losing the Vietnam war and not coming back with honor (today it would be considered honor), then it meant that John McCain didn't speak for me. It meant that he was determined to use any means necessary to go into war with anyone who trashed the "USA" (something the brownshirts in the audience reminded the viewers, in case they forgot where we lived). McCain is running in the past.
Nate Silver at 5:38 says that the crowd gave McCain most of their attention when he focused on the three P's: Palin, Petroleum, and POW. Well, that's what they wanted to hear. But what about the middle class viewer like me?
McCain opens the cracks the window with this comment:
These are tough times for many of you. You’re worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and are struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home. All you ever asked of government is to stand on your side, not in your way. And that’s just what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future.
OK, you mentioned he is concerned...a little. Yeah, like a little troll, as he concerned for this couple in Michigan:
I fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills.
He says he will fight for us and is on our side. I couldn't locate what he would do as he blathered on for the next 30 minutes...And on, and on, and on....
In the late second quarter of the first half, he says without much appetite--meaning in 425 words--what he would do. Let's look at the only parts of what the Republicans would deem as substance of what to do for the middle class:
My tax cuts will create jobs. His [Obama] tax increases will eliminate them.
Tax cuts for whom?
Look at the Tax Policy Center's figures (as of June 2008, and reported on CNN's Money section of their website)--
McCain feed the portly wallets plan is an additional 10%, whereas at the bottom, it is less than 1%I purposely used a more conservative analysis to prove my point about the deficit: McCain's is around 4.5 Trillion that would be added; Obama's around 3.3 Trillion. One of McCain's surrogates promised a balanced budget by 2013.
Takeaway: 60 percent of taxpayers would get a tax cut three times as big from Obama as from McCain. That’s real money in the pockets of hardworking families.
Next "bone" he threw to us:
My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance.
Let me get this straight. McCain has a healthcare plan in which there is $2500 tax credit for health insurance and $5000 for families, indexed for inflation--estimated at 2%, but not to actual premium projections. Average cost is already at 12,000 dollars. Aon Consulting estimates that the costs will jump 10.6% by 2010.Think Progress brings out this salient point:
As a result, McCain’s credit becomes a tax increase. For a couple earning $40,000 and paying $13,800 for insurance, “McCain’s new tax credit would cut their taxes by $50 in 2009, but because the credit quickly falls behind rising premiums that are the basis of the current tax break, the family would pay $1,169 more in taxes in 2013…[and] would pay $2,809 more in taxes by 2018.”
I saved this part of the second paragraph about health insurance on purpose:
His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.
Well well. To paraphrase Michael Moore from LKL this evening, this is hostility towards the government. We the people formed this government. Aren't we the government? Therefore, McCain is attacking people for giving him health care that many of us want and only he gets? Put it another way: Is McCain telling us even though he knows what it is like to get health care in another country (meaning Vietnam and he was a POW, McSame's refrain when he refuses to speak on issues), that the health care he receives now is inferior? He's on a government run health care system (or at least insurance plan) and does it mean a bureaucrat stands between him and his doctor? I got a worse problem: I have health insurance, and I have a for-profit bureaucrat that stands between me and my doctor over prescriptions or finds ways not to cover extras that have to do with pre-existing conditions since their overhead is 30% compared to 2% for the government. I have insurance companies fighting who pays for someone who ran into the back of my car with me in it and caused a relapse of a whiplash as it is.
That aside, McPain's tax credits wouldn't even scratch the surface for my regular check-ups. As Elizabeth Edwards points out rightly, even McCain's plan would exclude him from his own plan (but then he wouldn't try to cover himself under his own plan either.
Takeway: Even though he has it, McCain doesn't want to give working families government insurance that is much cheaper than what most of us pay.Obama's plan would cover those with government-sponsored insurance who needed it.
The next bag of wings and chicken legs:
Keeping taxes low helps small businesses grow and create new jobs. Cutting the second highest business tax rate in the world will help American companies compete and keep jobs from moving overseas. Doubling the child tax exemption from $3500 to $7000 will improve the lives of millions of American families. Reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs will let you keep more of your own money to save, spend and invest as you see fit. Opening new markets and preparing workers to compete in the world economy is essential to our future prosperity.
I know some of you have been left behind in the changing economy and it often seems your government hasn’t even noticed. Government assistance for unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That’s going to change on my watch. My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We’re going to help workers who’ve lost a job that won’t come back, find a new one that won’t go away.
We will prepare them for the jobs of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities. For workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.
We've had tax cuts for years, and today it was reported that unemployment has jumped from 9.0% to 10.7% this year. (Bruce McF has the details at EENR of what this means) Senator McCain is confusing me or himself. Presuming it is not the latter, and using Bill and Sue Nebe as an example, McCain is essentially offering them job training for the real estate investments in the housing market, even though Sue is already working 3 jobs. I don't know what Sue is doing, but I bet she doesn't have health care. If she is working three jobs, when would she have time to go to school and retrain? Bill is working a temporary job--not certain what he's doing either, but for some reason, John McCain is fighting for them.
Now, let's look at real situation. Gloria Craven appeared last week at the DNC Convention in Denver. Joe and Gloria Craven lost their jobs at a textile plant in North Carolina. He had put in nearly 30 years, and had many months of vacation pay coming to them when they got laid off and the company has fought the unions' claims off in court. Joe had health problems and can't work much and his health bills have eaten up most of what savings they have. Gloria has gone back to school, but wonders if she can finish school. They were good Republicans until 2006.
I'm dubious as to where McCain's plan would fit in. I got the impression McCain's plan would replace unemployment insurance as unemployment insurance would pay more. Then there is COBRA. I didn't see that John McCain's plan would pick up the differential cost between COBRA payments and what they were paying for health insurance.
Takeaway: John McCain wants everyone to work at Wal-Mart without health and no unemployment insurance.Obama would also have re-training, but he would also favor employee free choice act, whereby corporations would dispense with secret ballots in voting for organizing employees. Obama would also employ someone who has experience in working with unions, not against them, as head of the the Labor Relations Board.
Education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.
When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have that choice and their children will have that opportunity.
The two paragraphs contradict one another. I hope that gets explained sometime, but I suspect it means that parents may use taxpayer dollars to send their kids to church schools. Church schools are good in many instances, but does that mean I can opt out of the tax system to pay for kids (which I don't have) to attend church schools if I don't agree with that policy? Public education is supposed to be a public good, I thought. Does that also mean that we don't need school libraries either?
Takeaway: John McCain doesn't believe in the separation of church and state, and puts corporate profits in accessing taxpayer dollars for a major public good--education for everyone.
And that my friends (to use a favorite phrase of the Rethugs), is all he had to offer the middle class.
I did like the last part of his speech (even though the word fight is mentioned 42 times in 51 minutes):
Fight for justice and opportunity for all.
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.
Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit.
I do believe in justice and opportunity for all. That's why I voted for John Edwards.
I do think we need to defend ourselves (especially at home and not having troops fighting in a place where we aren't needed anymore).
And yes, I've been standing up for 4 years against Bush and his ilk. And I will keep fighting to get my country back on the right road.
But the most telling part and the theme of John McCain running in the past: We never hide from history. We make history.
Seems appropriate to end with Genesis' "Land of Confusion"--which came out in 1986, but timeless.
No my friends--he and his ilk live in the past of Ronald Reagan. Nothing about issues. Lakoff is right.
McCain hasn't changed since he stepped out on his first wife. Tsk, Tsk.
And now he has chosen someone who likes to shoot Bambi's mother before going to school. My, My, My.
See Desmoinesdem's excellent diary at Bleedingheartland about how evangelicals aren't too thrilled with Sarah Palin accepting the opportunity to be on the McCain "Straight-look Express."
And about Sarah Palin's views on abortion, even in the life of her daughter.
Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine. You sit there every night after you put the kids to bed and you talk, you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you’re worried about being able to pay the bills. Well ladies and gentlemen, that’s not a worry that John McCain has to worry about. It’s a pretty hard experience — he’ll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.
This blog is for my friends and acquaintances who were formerly with the John Edwards campaign, which had the most progressive agenda. I am a progressive liberal, musing about politics and life.
