McCain would not even shake Obama's hand, post debate (Video)

McCain has such disdain for Obama

Obama Evening Wrap Up...Picture, Proof, Evidence of Who is an ELITIST.

Barack in Green Bay, Wisconsin

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Meet the Real Elitists, The McCains


h/t kos

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McCain Campaign Conference Call Meltdown

The McCain Campaign has been going through a meltdown.

Angry at the media for finally reporting the facts of the McCain/Palin lies. This was bound to happen for a number of reasons. The Obama Campaign has finally been working the refs, for fair coverage. Making the media front and center and pressuring them to perform accurate journalism about the McCain Campaign obvious lies has put the McCain Campaign on the defense. Again, it took the ladies of The View and the critical questioning of McCain to really shed light on the campaign of lies. Finally, credibility means something in the world of “spin”.

The McCain Campaign's strategy is to make this a campaign of "personalities" and not "issues". Well, banks failing, established investment houses failing, insurance companies failing, issues are now DEMANDED to be discussed by the American public.

Now the McCain Campaign is bringing up stuff the Clinton Campaign brought front and center during the campaign. William Ayers, the Daleys of Chicago, Tony Rezko, etc. All of this cast of characters that we saw rinsed and repeated during the primary war.

Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.

But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.

The errors in McCain strategist Steve Schmidt’s charges against Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were particularly notable because they seemed unnecessary. Schmidt repeatedly gilded the lily: He exaggerated the Biden family's already problematic ties to the credit card industry; Obama’s embarrassing relationship with a 1960s radical; and an Obama supporter’s over-the-top attack on Sarah Palin when — in each case — the truth would have been damaging enough.

“Any time the Obama campaign is criticized at any level, the critics are immediately derided as liars,” Schmidt told reporters.

This is whining, at its worst, meaning the internal polling numbers must not be there.

The reason for this happening is the press coverage of the McCain Campaign and the lies out of that camp has been so over the top; the press was literally FORCED to report the facts. This is not sitting well with them. So, up comes the guilt by association play of the McCain Campaign.

Schmidt criticized the press for the relatively sparse coverage of the fact that one of Biden’s sons, Hunter, is a registered federal lobbyist.

“His son is a lobbyist for the credit card and banking industry,” Schmidt said.

But Hunter Biden’s lobbying clients don’t include any banks or credit card companies. He did work, as a vice president and then as a consultant, for MBNA, a Delaware-based bank and credit card giant to which Biden had close ties. But he does not appear to have lobbied for the firm.

“Steve Schmidt lied — or just got it flat wrong," said Biden spokesman David Wade. "Hunter Biden has never — never — been a lobbyist for the credit card or banking industry."

Schmidt attacked Obama for his ties to William Ayers, who has spoken of his role in 1960s anti-war bombings committed by the Weather Underground.

"What we know for sure, and is beyond debate and argumentation is this: Senator Obama said that William Ayers is a guy that lives in his neighborhood. We know that that is a disingenuous and untruthful answer,” Schmidt said.

“Senator Obama began his political career in its early stages raising money at Ayers’ house,” he said.

Obama did hold a 1995 campaign event at Ayers’ house. It was not, however, a fundraiser, and Ayers did not contribute money to Obama’s first campaign, according to Illinois records.

Schmidt also complained of Obama backers’ attacks on McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“As soon as Gov. Palin was nominated, one of … Obama’s chief campaign surrogates, [Florida Rep.] Robert Wexler, went out and accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer,” Schmidt said. “Where is the outrage to that aspersion on the part of some of the biggest newspapers in the country?”

But Wexler didn’t call Palin a Nazi sympathizer. He called former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan a Nazi sympathizer, and attacked Palin for allegedly having endorsed him.

The lack of backing up these claims against the Obama Campaign proved a vacuum for the McCain Campaign, in other words, no comment. Meaning they hoped the press would just jump at their complaints and start writing about these characters who have been WRITTEN about for 2 years.

All I can write is, Good Luck, as I view the the photo above. Who is really zoomin' whom here? Oh, and they HATE the New York Times. Maybe, because they are actually performing their job called "reporting the facts."



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All pet and animal lovers, should LOVE THIS

The Humane Society Endorses Obama/Biden!!!

I wanted to let you know that today, on behalf of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, I announced our endorsement of Barack Obama for President. Please see my blog below for more information, and help spread the word to animal lovers across the country.

More on the endorsement, here.

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Barack in Green Bay, Wisconsin, "Reforming Washington"

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Joe in Baltimore, Maryland before the National Guard Association of the United States

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and..............

The Motherlode of All Voter Registration Information That You Need

Obama on the Bailout

A Sense of Resentment Amid the 'For Sale' Signs

Obama Campaign is officially OUT of North Dakota

Obama, McCain on 60 Minutes, Video

Bill Clinton on 'The View', Video

The Great Financial Do-Over

and "This Week With Barack Obama", here

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The Ladies of ABC's "The View" Ask the REAL QUESTIONS to John McCain, (Video)

part one


part two


part three

Finally, someone asks the tough questions.

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Cindy McCain's $300,000 outfit. Unbelievable.

And they say the Obamas are elitists? WTF?



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One of the persistent memes in the Republican line of attack against Barack Obama is the notion that he is an elitist, whereas the G.O.P. represent real working Americans like Levi “F-in’ Redneck” Johnston.

It caught our attention, then, when First Lady Laura Bush and would-be First Lady Cindy McCain took the stage Tuesday night wearing some rather fancy designer clothes. So we asked our fashion department to price out their outfits.

Laura Bush
Oscar de la Renta suit: $2,500
Stuart Weitzman heels: $325
Pearl stud earrings: $600–$1,500
Total: Between $3,425 and $4,325

Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

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John, keep Cindy McCain at home. Foreign Policy is not her thing.

On ABCs "This Week with George Stephanopoulos", Cindy McCain had the gaul to state that since Alaska is close to Russia, this constitutes Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience. She sounds as dumb as that dimwit on Fox in the Morning who made the same exact phrasing. Oh, btw, that dim light bulb at Fox in the Morning should be fired for making morning shows look DUMB.



And here is dim light bulb, Steve Doocy, from Fox in the Morning defending Sarah Palin's Foreign Policy experience:



And as always, Andrew Sullivan hits it out of the park summarizing Sarah Palin and her lack of experience, here.

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Evening Wrap Up...Going to the mattresses....

obama with governor tim kaine in chester, virginia

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Goin' to the Mattresses

We all know what this means.

When sh*t hits the fan, you do whatever to survive and one up the next guy.

The major GAFFE by John McCain, not knowing how many houses he has is spiraling into a mess, for McCain.

It just reiterates what many already know, this man is completely out of touch. How can anyone with 10 homes even relate to little ol' us, who are just working stiffs, trying to keep things going? He can't.

Now he is going to the mattresses. He already released a Rezko, "House Ad", which is weak, but is not refraining from Reverend Wright. Meaning, expect one soon.

Yes, he will go down this road to make this about race. This is the only way he can win, to divide the populous. Haven't we seen this show?

Anyway, this is going to be nasty. Remember, to hang in there, we can win but only together.

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Bombshell Ad, "SEVEN"



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Cindy McCain Can't Tell the Truth

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

Such exaggerations may simply be the product of a faulty memory or a desire to be “better” than one is in a political culture that requires larger-than-life idols. But with the advent of the fact-checking obsessed blogosphere – and a media racing to keep up – such self-aggrandizement doesn’t last as long as it once did.

“It’s all about myth-making,” says Darrell West, the director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Politicians love to turn their stories into great epics, and sometimes they have to embellish to smooth out the story line.”

“But now there are too many professional and amateur fact-checkers,” he says. “And there are hundreds if not thousands of bloggers who have detailed knowledge on specialized information, so you really can’t get away with stretching the truth anymore.”

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and...................

Possible VP Rollout, here................................

It was a really bad day to be John McCain............................

New group plans Ayers attack on Obama........................................

Another Republican tying himself to Obama........................................

1M Parking Lot, owned by the McCains........................................

Corsi's Obama Book Inspires New Dissidents On Right...................................

Limbaugh, GOP pushback: Rezko..........................................

Morning Break, here.....................................

When the VP Pick is announced, and I expect TOMORROW IN THE EARLY AM, I will post it here

Late Morning Break...Still Hawai'i and Early Voting for Ohio

obama and michelle entering the kahala hotel & resort for tuesday's fundraiser

Obama Hawaii Pictures, August 12, 2008

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Early Voting: One Stop Registering and Voting in Ohio

Well, ain't this grand.

I read this and saw a diary on Daily Kos by dansac from Strategy '08.

The proposal is this, there will be an open window for early voting between September 30-October 6, 2008. This will allow Obama to campaign HARD on college campuses in Ohio, get the students registered and to vote all on the same day.

Of the more than 470,000 students enrolled in Ohio's public colleges and universities in 2006, the most recent figures available, nine out of 10 were Ohio residents, the state Board of Regents said. To register to vote in Ohio, a person must be a resident of the state for at least 30 days immediately before an election.

This is a slam dunk, really it is. But of course, the Republicans are whining and they are the ones who created this loop hole.

The voting window, so far, is only being implemented in some counties — typically, urban areas or those with college campuses — leading Republicans to cry foul.

"The prospect of someone coming in with no ID and registering and voting is contrary to every sort of protection that legislators and lawmakers have built into this system for decades," said Kevin DeWine, a Republican lawmaker who is poised to take over the state party after the election. "The processes and the law and the systems in our 88 counties are not equipped to handle same-day registration."

People in Ohio can register without identification, but they have to show some sort of ID to vote.

State lawmakers accidentally made the window before the 2006 elections. Obama's campaign is eager to take advantage of it this year.

Remember the 2006 elections? When the Republican regime in Ohio was kicked out? Well, they created this loophole, so they only have themselves to blame. The Democratic regime is only implementing it.

Maybe, probably, surely expect lawsuits for this but I don't think it will be successful. Many states now have early voting. I have been early voting in Illinois for some time now. So, adopting this for this election is nothing but excitement, especially for new and young voters.

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Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) is a Dishonorable, Disgrace



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Obama Raises $1.3 Million in Hawaii

Old friends and big donors greeted Senator Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, at a fund-raiser here Tuesday night where the campaign took in $1.3 million — more than Mr. Obama has raised in the islands during his entire presidential campaign.

According to a pool report, a number of Mr. Obama’s friends and former high school classmates were among the 500 people who paid at least $2,300 for a ticket to the event that was held at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, a beach-front property here.

“I’ve got friends here who have just been lifelong friends, people who have seen me through thick and thin, in tough times and in good times,” said Mr. Obama, who grew up in Hawaii and is on a week-long vacation here that ends Friday. continue

GOP attacking Obama for going on an "elitist" vacation

The Republican Party is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous and it started with the stupidity of Cokie Roberts, ABC insinuating that Hawai'i is an "exotic foreign country". For, ferks sake, Hawai'i is the 50th state of the union. So the concern trolls, called the Republican Party is sniffing at anything to use against Obama while he is in Hawai'i. But here are the FACTS:

First, Obama didn't choose Hawaii for its beautiful beaches. He spent much of his childhood there--including high school--and is returning mainly to visit his housebound 85-year-old grandmother, whom he hasn't seen since December 2006. As far as I can tell, there's nothing "highfalutin" about flying home for vacation. Unless family is only for elitists.

Second, even if Obama didn't have roots in Hawaii, the place isn't exactly an "elite" destination. Each year, the islands attract about 7.5 million visitors--most of them middle-class Americans. As the Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum notes, Hawaii "ranks right in between Disneyland and the Grand Canyon on the elitism meter, and probably a couple of notches below a visit to Yosemite." In other words, it's no Nantucket.


Third, the most "elite" aspect of Obama's Hawaiian upbringing--his time at the upscale Punahou School, which costs $17,000 a year--wasn't all that elite: the son of single mother, he attended on scholarship. (The same can't be said for John McCain, who spent his formative years at the exclusive St. Stephen’s School and Episcopal High in Alexandria, Va.)

Finally, Obama is staying in a rental property for the next week--which will probably prove less expensive than investing, like McCain, in a 6.6-acre, $1.1 million weekend getaway ranch in Sedona, Ariz. Or any of his six other houses.

So, if the Republicans really want to talk about elitism, we can talk about Cindy McCain's 750K a month AMEX bill, their 6 or 8 homes they own in some of the most prestigious and expensive areas in this country, the wealth in excess of over 100M of the McCains, etc. See we can go on and on. But play this card? All of it will be thrown back in your faces. Guaranteed.

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Campaign Trouble Spots



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Two Bullets the Democrats Dodged: Hillary Clinton and John Edwards

As the Clinton Memos roll out and confirms what many thought and gave an insight to what type of management Clinton has, which was not much, makes many Democrats sigh in relief. All I can say is this; if Obama does not win in 2008 it will be hard for Clinton to be the nominee in 2012. Not with all we know, now.

And John Edwards a man who does not even know how to spell the truth, now all the speculation about that baby, when did Elizabeth know, etc. Edwards is a coward. He and only he could have ended this tawdry story on Friday. How? By telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But he did not. He kept this story open by stating he is not the father of this child, will take a DNA test. Of course, the mistress is not taking a DNA test. Why? She is being paid to keep quiet.

Look, Edwards is still lying to his wife. He is the father of this baby but is too cowardly to admit it. This mistress was in a 3M Santa Barbara, CA home, no job, no means of wealth and since Edwards ABC interviews the mistress and baby has been "private jetted" away to an undisclosed location.

Democrats, we dodged a bullet on both of these candidates. No person is perfect, but after what we know NOW, we should be glad that Barack Obama is the Democratic Nominee.






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and........................

Former Governor of Virginia, Mark Warner a candidate for the senate is the keynote speaker...........................

Missed Evening Wrap Up? Read it, here..................

Obama Leads Among Christians...................

Reverend Wright is NOT WRITING A BOOK.......

Obama and McCain talking spirituality at Rick Warren's Church on Saturday...............

Conservative Democrats hail party's new abortion plank.............................

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Imagine if Michelle Obama said this:

posted @ Daily Kos


"In Arizona the only way to get around the state is by small private plane"

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Wow, Cindy actually said that.

As we trod through the muddied waters called, "campaign season", we must endure some of the ridiculous.

I wrote a diary a while back called, "For the Love of Money. The McCains."

This diary focused on the money facet of the McCains. Well more Cindy than anyone else's, especially her 750K monthly AMEX bill and eight houses, but okay we won't go there.

After reading this diary it is not hard to believe or hear Cindy state the following:



The only way to get around the state is by small private plane? And Cindy's private plane? Along with her jet? etc., etc., etc.....

Ok, did you drink your morning cup of elitism yet?

While we are at it, looks like Cindy will reap a financial windfall with the sale of Anheuser-Busch to the Belgian brewer InBev:

Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain -- who inherited a Phoenix beer distributorship that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- will reap a tidy windfall from the $52 billion sale of Anheuser-Busch to the Belgian brewer InBev.” More: “Hensley & Company ... owns a minimum of $1 million in Anheuser-Busch common stock, according to Mr. McCain’s most recent Senate financial disclosures. No maximum is given, but last year’s dividend income on that stock was between $50,001 and $100,000 in Anheuser-Busch stock, the disclosures show. And since Anheuser-Busch paid out dividends of $1.25 a share in 2007, it appears that Hensley owned between 40,000 and 80,000 shares. That, in turn, suggests that the $70-per-share price InBev is paying will give Hensley a gain of roughly $1 million to $2 million compared to February, when speculation about the deal surfaced ­ and two-thirds of that would pencil out as the McCain family’s windfall.”

That is no small peanuts folks, and this:

Mrs. McCain, who’s been known to zip around Phoenix in a car with “MS BUD” vanity plates, also owns $50,001 to $100,000 in A-B stock through her corporate retirement plan, and her dependent children own $15,001 to $50,000 of the stock, the disclosures show. They’ll of course enjoy much smaller gains from the InBev deal.

On the other hand, if the children were to cash out, they’d only have to pay capital gains tax at a rate of 15 percent under President Bush’s 2006 tax cuts, which Mr. McCain initially opposed but which he now supports. (Hensley & Company would presumably be subject to the corporate capital-gains rate of 35 percent, which was not lowered.)

If this was the Obamas the media would be all over this, especially if Michelle Obama would have the nerve to state, "the only way to get around Illinois is by small plane."

Wonder what happened to cars or buses?

Oh well, most of us would never know because when you have hundreds of millions of dollars, this is the norm, not the exception.


h/t to Rachel Maddow for calling Cindy out!!!

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This Week With Barack Obama

Evening Wrap Up with Obama, New Yorker Magazine, Cindy McCain's Bud Money, NCLR and Iraq

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A somber, Barack Obama returning to Chicago today.

Do you blame him? After being supposedly, satirized by The New Yorker Magazine?

Today it appears The New Yorker Magazine is playing defense for its cover. They should, it is the outrage right now and feeds into all the stereotyping and internet smearing of Barack and Michelle Obama.

I said, long ago that this campaign would be about defining Barack and Michelle Obama, even if it means going racist, sextist and totally negative.

Thank You, New Yorker Magazine for opening the door here.

Yes, we understand you said it is satire, but you are a bunch of folks, sitting in an office in Manhattan who think people will get this. Sure, you are targeting your sophisticated clientele, but in the meantime everyone one else is either applauding the, "I told you so" or scratching their heads for a truly, "WTF" moment.

Now for those playing catch up:

NPR: New Yorker Editor Defends Obama Cover

NPR: Obama And The Chicago Establishment


msnbc


nbc's nightly news

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Which Bank Will Fall Next?

All EYEZ on Washington Mutual.

Let's get this out of the way right now: Your money is safe if it's in an institution insured by the FDIC. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. covers up to $100,000 per institution, and even may provide additional coverage for IRAs in those banks. So, don't head for the mattress store.

That said, it's an ominous sign that I can buy a share of Washington Mutual for about the same price as my morning tall, nonfat, no-whip, stirred mocha at Starbucks. The sour taste from a week of more market turmoil, ending with the federal seizure of big mortgage lender IndyMac Bank, sent Washington Mutual shares down 34.7 percent today to $3.23. Those same shares fetched nearly $43 a year ago.

I don't care what you SAY, there are more banks that will FALL.

After IndyMac being taken over by the feds, do you think that this was the only bank entrenched and deeply involved with the mortgage mess that has taken many down? Including many millions of American home owners?

Think again.

Washington Mutual Inc. posted the steepest retreat ever and National City Corp. tumbled to a 24-year low after last week's collapse of IndyMac Bancorp Inc. spurred speculation that regional banks are short of capital. The companies said they've seen no unusual depositor activity. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac erased an earlier rally fueled by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to help rescue the largest U.S. mortgage lenders.

If you have over 100K in the bank, you better spread it around. I expect more of what happened to IndyMac coming to another bank, soon.

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obama's speech at nclr conference in san diego

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My Plan for Iraq

The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States.

The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president. I believed it was a grave mistake to allow ourselves to be distracted from the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban by invading a country that posed no imminent threat and had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Since then, more than 4,000 Americans have died and we have spent nearly $1 trillion. Our military is overstretched. Nearly every threat we face — from Afghanistan to Al Qaeda to Iran — has grown.

In the 18 months since President Bush announced the surge, our troops have performed heroically in bringing down the level of violence. New tactics have protected the Iraqi population, and the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda — greatly weakening its effectiveness.

But the same factors that led me to oppose the surge still hold true. The strain on our military has grown, the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated and we’ve spent nearly $200 billion more in Iraq than we had budgeted. Iraq’s leaders have failed to invest tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues in rebuilding their own country, and they have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge.

The good news is that Iraq’s leaders want to take responsibility for their country by negotiating a timetable for the removal of American troops. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the American officer in charge of training Iraq’s security forces, estimates that the Iraqi Army and police will be ready to assume responsibility for security in 2009.

Only by redeploying our troops can we press the Iraqis to reach comprehensive political accommodation and achieve a successful transition to Iraqis’ taking responsibility for the security and stability of their country. Instead of seizing the moment and encouraging Iraqis to step up, the Bush administration and Senator McCain are refusing to embrace this transition — despite their previous commitments to respect the will of Iraq’s sovereign government. They call any timetable for the removal of American troops “surrender,” even though we would be turning Iraq over to a sovereign Iraqi government.

But this is not a strategy for success — it is a strategy for staying that runs contrary to the will of the Iraqi people, the American people and the security interests of the United States. That is why, on my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war.

As I’ve said many times, we must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in. We can safely redeploy our combat brigades at a pace that would remove them in 16 months. That would be the summer of 2010 — two years from now, and more than seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, a residual force in Iraq would perform limited missions: going after any remnants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, protecting American service members and, so long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces. That would not be a precipitous withdrawal.

In carrying out this strategy, we would inevitably need to make tactical adjustments. As I have often said, I would consult with commanders on the ground and the Iraqi government to ensure that our troops were redeployed safely, and our interests protected. We would move them from secure areas first and volatile areas later. We would pursue a diplomatic offensive with every nation in the region on behalf of Iraq’s stability, and commit $2 billion to a new international effort to support Iraq’s refugees.

Ending the war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been. As Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently pointed out, we won’t have sufficient resources to finish the job in Afghanistan until we reduce our commitment to Iraq.

As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there. I would not hold our military, our resources and our foreign policy hostage to a misguided desire to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.

In this campaign, there are honest differences over Iraq, and we should discuss them with the thoroughness they deserve. Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our permanent bases in South Korea, and would redeploy our troops out of Iraq and focus on the broader security challenges that we face. But for far too long, those responsible for the greatest strategic blunder in the recent history of American foreign policy have ignored useful debate in favor of making false charges about flip-flops and surrender.

It’s not going to work this time. It’s time to end this war.

Barack Obama, a United States senator from Illinois, is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

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Cindy McCain is about to make a financial killing on her stock/investment in Anheuser-Busch Company a.k.a. Budweiser. If you need to catch up on Cindy and her money dealings, click here.

Meantime, here is the crux of it:

Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, is set to get a huge payout from the sale of Anheuser-Busch Cos., brewer of Budweiser and hundreds of other brands, to Belgian beverage giant InBev NV.

McCain, the heiress to the third-largest Anheuser distributor, owns at a minimum $1 million in the American company, according to John McCain’s Senate financial disclosure forms, which don’t offer any more information for large assets held by his spouse. Under the deal, she and other stockholders will get a cash payout for the stock, which is owned through her company, Hensley and Co.

Anheuser’s stock price opened at $67.55 today, almost a 50% gain over the near $47 price in February when the possibility of a deal was made public. Cashing out could leave the McCains with hefty capital gains, which would be taxed at a rate of 15% under the Bush tax cuts that John McCain opposed and now supports. (Barack Obama has proposed raising the capital gains tax.) continue

A guess of what she could make is about:

If Cindy were to sell off the 2006-era number of shares, as estimated above, at today's $70 price, she would make $17,545,780.

No wonder there's no problem having 8 homes. Damn, I need a cup of that elitism!!

Oh, Cindy also said the only way to get around the State of Arizona is by small plane. Yes, she said that. See the video, here.

And folks have the nerve stating the Obamas are elitists???

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Obama is in Cincinnati tonight to give a speech to the NAACP.

Obama to give major Iraq Speech in Washington, D.C., tomorrow.

Is O'Bama Ireland bound?

Obama's feature article in Newsweek on Finding His Faith.

If you missed the weekly, 'This Week With Barack Obama', read it here.

And new state polling show Obama improving, not dropping here.

finally, a pick me up....



This Week With Barack Obama

Evening Wrap Up...and the RNC dropping ads this weekend against Obama...

obama in colorado springs, colorado

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Well, the RNC is showing its armpits. Yes, expect them to stink up the joint for the 4th of July weekend, by going negative on Barack Obama.

If anyone does not understand why Obama has forgone public financing, this is the reason.

You do not want your opponent to have the opportunity to define you, period. Obama has exercised his money roll by putting up ads in 18 states across this country, meaning almost half of the country.

A good move. Why? Because many don't know Barack Obama and many are not even engaged in this campaign, and won't be until after Labor Day. In the meantime, you don't want the GOP defining you and define him they will try.

What is coming is the creation of a facade that Obama is scary, unfit, a boogey man, untested, and basically short of calling him a "black-so-and-so".

While many Dems are angry about Obama's run to the middle, remember this, he is our candidate and the funding of this campaign must not stop.

The ads will run in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and if you are not aware this is an expenditure or arm of the RNC, in other words a 527. Like that matters?

Lastly, my thought on running to the middle, I am still processing this. I don't like Obama's flip on FISA, my husband don't like Obama's flip on the gun issue, I am not crazy about his change on NAFTA, and I still have not embraced his religious policy. In stating this, Barack Obama is a politician, always has been. It has been the netroots who have put him on a pedestal and now are going through a shock withdrawal. Politicians, no matter who they are or what party, in the end want to win. So, watch John McCain change from "I am not running a negative campaign" to "I will say anything to destroy, discredit Barack Obama to win". Folks, it is coming.

UPDATE: McCain Campaign buying Ad Time in Virginia. Ummm, can we say, "worried".

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obama's speech in colorado springs, call to service

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This diary should shut the McCain Campaign up about who is really an elistist? Expect that word to vanish from the campaign and its surrogates mouths. Thanks, Cindy!!!

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Obama not running as movement

Barack Obama is a different kind of Democrat. He is one who actually intends to win.

I don’t know if he will or not, but I do know that he has made a key decision: He has decided to run as a candidate for president and not as the leader of a movement.

Movement candidates often fail when the demands of the movement come in conflict with the demands of politics.

The most recent example was Howard Dean’s (short-lived) campaign for president in 2004.

Dean was supposed to be leading a movement designed to “empower” citizens who felt locked out of the process. His slogan, and the title of one of his books, was “You Have the Power.”

Some in Dean’s own campaign were worried, however, that he was too conventional a politician for the task. Dean had been a six-term governor and former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association (and would go on to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee). The fights within the campaign were endless, and the “empowerment” side won, with Dean running a TV ad right before the Iowa caucuses featuring the candidate facing the camera and saying, “This election is about power. About who runs the country and who owns it.”

The empowerment movement loved the ad, but the Democratic voters of Iowa hated it and Dean came in a bad third, effectively ending his campaign. continue

Yes, this is why many are going through shock withdrawal. Obama is a politician.

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obama's speech on his faith based proposal

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If there is one common thread about John McCain it is his notorious temper.

Yes, he has a big one.

So right now he is pissed that anyone would have the utter gall or nerve to question his military record.

McCain is demanding that Obama terminate Wes Clark:

"I think it’s up to Sen. Obama now not only to repudiate him but to cut him loose," McCain said.

Obama is not going there. Why should he? We played this game with Hillary since January, why would Obama cow-tow down to McCain?

McCain's service record is fair game. Why? Because he is running on being a POW, War Hero, that gives him gravitas to having experience with national security. Only Clark, along with Webb cut him down. They respected his service to the country, but that was about it. Again, McCain has as much executive experience on national security as Barack Obama and that is none.

Back to that temper, McCain almost lost it in front of the press corp:

McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency.

"Please," he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question.

McCain allies Sen. Lindsey Graham stepped in to rescue him. Graham expressed admiration for McCain’s stance on the treatment of detainees in US custody.

"That to me is a classic example of how his military experience helped him shape public policy in a way no other senator could have done,’’ Graham said.

Lastly, there is a diary on Daily Kos by Geekesque, which is appropriately titled: Unfit for duty: McCain physically assaulted foreign official in 1987

Yes, it is all true and the story was put out by McCain's own Republican colleague, Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran. Ain't love grand!!!

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Ball of Confusion

Again, John McCain can not remember that he stated that he is not knowledgeable on the economy. Of course, he shoveled his typical "you know what" on GMA:



but here, is the actual McCain that said he did not understand the economy:



h/t SusanG

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The Washington Post is taking heat on a veiled, thin piece about the Obamas home loan. It attempts to try to weave Countrywide Financial in this, but it was not Countrywide that secured the loan.

Also, the piece hypes up the Obamas discount on the interest rate of 5.625 percent on a 30 yr fixed rate.

Read the piece, it is totally bogus. But it was poblano/nate over at 538 that busted the article down as follows:

So Obama's rate was 30 basis points better than the average. However, the amount of the loan and the nature of the property are not the only factors that determine a mortgage rate. Another major consideration is the creditworthiness of the borrower. According to current rate quotes from myFICO.com, a borrower with very good credit can expect a mortgage rate about 30 basis points better than someone with pretty good credit, and a borrower with excellent credit can expect about a 50 basis point discount.

Unless the Washington Post has access to Obama's FICO score -- and unless it has rented an apartment to him, it probably doesn't -- it is missing a pretty important piece of information on what Obama's mortgage rate ought to have been. What was Obama's FICO score? I don't know, but considering that...
* Obama had just gotten a $2.27 million book deal from Random House -- about $1 million more than the value of the mortgage.

* The Obamas each had exceptionally secure jobs that paid them a combined annual salary of about $500,000 per year.

* The Obamas had just sold their condo, on which they had realized a $137,500 profit.

* The Obamas were prominent public figures whose political futures depended in part on maintaining a reputation for responsibility and trustworthiness.

* The Obamas are known to be relatively thrifty and have no credit card debt but substantial savings.

...I would think that the Obamas were exceptionally creditworthy. So indeed, Obama received a "discount" -- the same discount that any borrower in his position would have received.

The Washington Post need to get it together. Unless they have PROOF that the Obamas got preferential treatment or an "on the low DEAL", the piece reeks of utter bullshit.

UPDATE: CNN DEBUNKS THE WASHINGTON POST STORY



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Dan Qualye for Obama!!! Well, sorta...

"I have a lot of grudging respect for what he did because he beat the Clintons, something we couldn't do in 1992. The Clintons were very convincing in the campaign they ran. So I thought she would be the candidate,” said Quayle, who lost his bid for a second vice presidential term to the Democratic ticket of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992.

"I think she made obviously some very tactical mistakes. One, underestimating Obama. And, two, the whole inevitability that `I am entitled to the nomination' ended up hurting her quite dramatically,” he said while acknowledging that "I don't think anyone saw, including myself, the Barack Obama movement."

As a Republican who lost to a Democratic ticket touting “change,” Quayle had some advice for this year’s presumptive GOP nominee: lay out a “clear vision” of what he’ll do when he reaches the White House.

"When 80 percent of the people think we are on the wrong track, you need to do that. It needs to be strategic,” said Quayle. “That's not been done yet. They may be waiting for the convention, but that needs to be done."

Read it all, here.

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Bookmark this diary, for any GOP talking points

I ran across this laundry list of the GOP. Seriously, you will have to sit back and read it all. Also, don't be surprised to see one of your favorite GOP congresscritter on this list.

Swing State Project

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The McCain Campaign is shaking itself up. Demoting some, adding some, bringing some from the Bush White House, all in defeating Barack Obama.

Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign has gone through its second shake-up in a year as Mr. McCain, responding to Republican concerns that his candidacy was faltering, put Steve Schmidt in charge of day-to-day operations and abandoned an effort to have the campaign run by 11 regional managers, the senator’s aides said Wednesday.

...The shift was approved by Mr. McCain after several aides, including Mr. Schmidt, warned him about 10 days ago that he was in danger of losing the presidential election unless he revamped his campaign operation, according to two officials close to the campaign. continue

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Watch this story and see how it unfolds

Three military contractors, along with Ingrid Betancourt were released in Columbia today by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Why pay attention? Who is in Columbia right now? McCain. Will the freed hostages come back home with McCain? I would bet my paycheck on it. Why does this matter? Photo-op time for McCain, looking presidential. Why would McCain do this? Obama is about to go on a European tour and expect massive crowds, with blow-by-blow coverage. Oh, by the way, McCain has been to Europe and guess what? It was a snooze....

and finally the Obama Family will be in Butte, Montana for the 4th of July, tickets are available here.

So how was your day??

This Week With Barack Obama

For the Love of Money. The McCains.

cross-posted @ Daily Kos


john and cindy mccain in bogata, columbia

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Now this is how you get the Bush Tax Cuts to work for you.

After reading another juicy joint from politico, we have The McCains and trying to weave through their money thing.

I don't see how anyone at this JUNCTURE can point the finger at The Obamas for anything in the realm of elitism. Not when you have The McCains with what 6, 7, 8 homes?

In recent years, a Politico analysis found, the McCain family appears to have tapped its fortune liberally.

While Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control made as much as $29 million – and likely substantially more – from her family’s business interests from 2004 through last year, data from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Senate, U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Center for Responsive Politics also reveals that they spent $11 million purchasing five condominiums for the family, hired additional household help and racked up progressively larger credit cards bills almost every year.

Their credit card bills peaked between January 2007 and May 2008, during which time Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another, while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.

OK, the five condos do not include two other homes, and hey doesn't everyone in America have AMEX Cards and can spend up to 500K a month!!! No biggie, not when you have accessible money like this, swiping the good old card, doesn’t mean a thing.

Remember when John McCain's campaign was on exhaust fumes last year? Well his travel sure wasn't or did you expect John to travel in coach?

Likewise, John McCain’s presidential campaign benefited from Cindy McCain’s fortune, using a legal loophole to travel the country in a jet owned by her company for cut-rate fares.

In fact, the cost of using Cindy's private jet to get around only cost:

For five of those months, the plane was used almost exclusively for campaign-related purposes, those records show.

Mr. McCain’s campaign paid a total of $241,149 for the use of that plane from last August through February, records show. That amount is approximately the cost of chartering a similar jet for a month or two, according to industry estimates.

Yes, real perks when you are the ultra rich.

Remember all the fuss on Michelle Obama's 148.00 dress she wore on The View? A dress she plucked off the rack? For many that is still pricey, but there will be no plucking off the racks for Cindy. No that just won't do.

For instance, in the June issue of Vogue magazine, Cindy McCain said she favors suits made by the German designer Escada, which typically retail for around $3,000-a-pop. If she becomes first lady, she told Vogue she may switch to an American designer, possibly Carolina Herrera, whose suits are comparably pricey.

Now we all expect our potential first ladies to dress appropriately, I mean we don't want them looking like dish rags, but who in American can afford suits from Escada that start at 3K a pop? Yeah, I thought this would put you on pause.

NOBODY I KNOW SHOPS AT ESCADA.

Sorry, don't know anyone that does. You got to be in that "ultra rich" area to afford luxury clothing, yes that is what it is.

Now back to real estate, Cindy purchases three condos, and two in the same building. The condos are priced at 700K, 830K and 4.7M but it does not stop there:

Cindy McCain, through another family corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for its high percentage of military retirees.

Oh, it does not stop there folks.

Through her trusts and other corporate entities, Cindy McCain also owns another three properties: a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Arizona, where John McCain has entertained staff, prospective running mates and political reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Virginia, condo that’s been John McCain’s Washington-area residence since 1993 and the La Jolla, California, condo on which the back taxes were due.

This real estate puzzle reads like the who's who of the rich and famous. It really does. With all this property comes staff, as in those that pick your shit up and clean up after you.

The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns.

I don't know about you, but John McCain with Cindy surely has no reason to call the Obamas elitists. Not when you are running around spending up to 500K a month on AMEX cards, paying upwards of 300K for staff in all of your palatial residences, a corporate jet at the touch of your hand, and clothing only at couture boutiques where suits start at $3500.00.

What about the Americans who are hurting with lack of health care, food costs soaring, gas at the pump is off the chain, jobs are leaving this country, lack of jobs, tuition costs unaffordable, losing their homes and those that can not cover their bills; I don't know anyone in America who can relate to the McCains extravagances.

I am tired of the same old type of candidate, who is ultra rich, ascending to the office of the presidency. What change can they bring? They have been fed with the silver spoon of trust funds, elitism, and prestige. This is not the average American who has to get up every day and work to make ends meet.

John and Cindy McCain should not utter another word about Barack and Michelle Obama. They never had to work hard for anything; it has always been given to them, from money to name recognition.

It is time for change, not keeping the same.

This Week With Barack Obama

Ready to Attack Obama, But Geez...NO MONEY

cross-posted @ Daily Kos



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see this guy above in the back, that is the infamous man who blackened willie horton to the world, to be the scary black man that dukakis set free...well he is waiting, with his son to attempt the same trick on barack obama...

The man is Floyd Brown who relished in the delight of sinking Michael Dukakis in 1988, by attaching him as the liberal governor that set Willie Horton free to rape amuck.

That visual effect is still with me today. Remembering a commercial or ad, with a black man, with purposely darkened skin, a reminder to be afraid, be very afraid.

Well, this man with his son operates exposeobama.com, a website waiting to jump in the 527 ad game, but the money is not coming his way.

We may have angered positions with Obama right now, but the Republican Party is shaking in its shoes. This is the party that knows how to muddy the waters and play the nasty game, no matter who it offends or take down; they know how to do it. But for some reason, this party is not raising the money fast enough to compete.

With Barack Obama opting out of receiving public financing funds, the game is different this election cycle. It is called, "I got the money, you don't have it, and I will do whatever the hell I want to up until November, and you can't."

Pretty Much.

Mr. Brown is back to his trade of bludgeoning a Democratic candidate for president, producing an innuendo-laden advertisement that is being televised this week in Michigan, albeit sparsely on cable, questioning Mr. Obama’s religious background.

The Obama campaign singled out Mr. Brown on Thursday as emblematic of the threat that independent groups on the right posed to him. On Friday, Mr. Obama, at a news conference in Jacksonville, Fla., again named Mr. Brown while defending his campaign’s rejection of public financing for the general election.

Barack Obama is showing his financial prowess by airing this ad in 18 states, which started yesterday. See he can do that because "he got 'financial' game, and McCain don't." Which brings us back to reality here, the 527s and negatives ads are coming, sooner than later, but right now they need something viable to make a dent, it is called MONEY.

Yet if Mr. Brown’s struggles are any indication — he has so far failed to raise much money — it is not clear that Republicans will be able to repeat their successes in 2004, when independent groups like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth had a significant role in undermining Senator John Kerry’s campaign.

I agree here. The public's sentiment towards the Republicans is bad, period. I know die hard Republicans who will not, repeat not, vote Republican in the fall. They want change and if THEY feel that way towards their party, I know this feeling is all over the country. If you believe that MONEY DOES NOT MATTER IN ELECTIONS, think again. It does.

No major independent effort to help Senator John McCain’s campaign has materialized. Although Republican operatives say something will eventually develop, alarm has spread among many, especially after Mr. Obama’s announcement on Thursday on public financing, raising the prospect that he will wield an enormous financial advantage over Mr. McCain in the fall.

All the cable talking desk clerks have been jabbering away with "the democrats won't come together...the party is fractured...etc...", only to see repeated national and state polls to show that Barack Obama is shoring up our party and bringing it together, but McCain? Not so much.

Major donors are said to be uncertain of Mr. McCain’s chances as Republicans face a decidedly unfavorable climate in the fall....

Yes, they are uncertain, but since McCain has to take public financing money he is relying on these groups to do the dirty work, carry his water through the summer to the convention.

Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain, said Friday that although Mr. McCain had made clear his objections to such groups, he also recognized that a number of them were poised to work on Mr. Obama’s behalf. Mr. Schmidt said Mr. McCain understood that “people who want to participate in the process because of what’s going on the other side are going to participate in the process.”

“He’s not going to be a unilateral referee,” Mr. Schmidt added.

Yes, McCain is like Obama, don't like these groups, but need these groups because he cannot translate nor control his message because he is financially handicapped. He must depend on these groups because Obama will be running ads all summer, can he continue to have his poll numbers drop because he is virtually non-existent?

The RNC says Obama opting out will "energize" the base, but so far the base is not energized by Republicans at all.

This is why we are seeing McCain play the Clinton Primary Playbook. Rehashing attacks that Clinton had towards Obama during the primaries and virtually using her words verbatim. And we will add Cindy McCain to the mix, by keeping the perpetual controversy of the Michelle Obama patriotism alive with a dig on GMA Thursday.

The good news is the following: Barack Obama is CEO of Obama for America and is totally independent of any money from public financing. He can spend his money as he see fit with no issues. He can play in every state with no hassles. And he can raise as much money as he wants too, period.

The bad news is the following: John McCain is handcuffed to public financing and must rely on 527s to muddy up the waters for him. He cannot spend lavishly as Obama; he will have to be targeted and must wait until after the Republican Convention to start. The 527s are not raising the money so fast and many are not interested in them, this time around. The laws are stricter and Mr. Brown's group only have 40K in the bank, after the first quarter filing.

For conservatives hoping to repeat the Swift Boat effort, Federal Election Commission rulings after the 2004 election put such advertisements, which questioned a candidate’s character and fitness for office, off limits to 527s specifically.

Does this mean these groups won't be active? Of course not. This pathetic group has a web ad up lying about Obama being a Muslim, when he is a Christian.

But what one can hope is that he does not get the money needed to go full blown, but again, we are in election territory that is new to everyone involved and the old adage of "wait and see" is very applicable.

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Tip the Obama Jar, Here
Get Involved Here
For Inspiration: Yes.We.Can!!!

Afternoon Break....with Michelle stuff

First General Election Ad

The release of this first general election ad — airing in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia — will also change the subject from campaign finance.

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michelle with the ladies of the view





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barack opts out of public financing....



good for barack, bad for mccain who is struggling to raise money....

John McCain's campaign treated the news of Barack Obama abandoning the public financing system with the expected disdain, calling it evidence that Obama is "just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama."

But the comment may be tinged with more than a bit of envy.

McCain's fundraising has improved dramatically since he secured the nomination in early March. But unlike Obama, he's had to do it the very hard way, slogging through fundraiser after fundraiser, shaking hand after hand.

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Why Obama Should Visit Alaska?? And I mean visit it soon, especially with a now poll out from Rasmussen.

Nate a.k.a. poblano has the run down, here.

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Throughout the primary campaign no one can deny that Hillary Clinton brought out some zingers against Barack Obama.

She pushed and emphasized the "bitter comments"; then Clinton says that she and McCain have passed the commander in chief threshhold; she pounced on the Reverend Wright fiasco to Richard Mellon Scaife of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and on and on.

Much of the above is the reason I see that she will not be the vice-presidential candidate. Use your imagination and see the 527 ads if she is the candidate, or better yet see these ads come out ANYWAY with she and former President Clinton pounding Obama, using their video clips for negative ads. Yes, this is why she won't be on the ticket.

Well, when we have a young senator, new to the D.C. scene, don't have much for a voting record in the senate, what else would you expect the McCain to do? Just rehash all the Clinton attacks from the primary.

Voters thinking the Republican lines of attack against Sen. Barack Obama sound familiar aren't experiencing deja vu - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton previewed several of them during the primary campaign.

Democrats warned that the prolonged Obama-Clinton battle could give Republicans ammunition, and they have been proved right as Mrs. Clinton's harsher words resurface in campaign missives from Sen. John McCain and national, state and local Republicans.

He is naive and inexperienced on foreign policy, Mrs. Clinton suggested for months. Republicans have echoed the attacks.

Democrats now want to move past the nasty fight and Clinton backers are standing by Mr. Obama's side, but Republicans aren't eager to let the opposing party forget its warring.

Is the McCain Campaign in a good place? I don't think so. Will this work? Some things may, but many of us have heard all this and still many others have not.

Remember this, though many of us have followed the primary, etc., still many Americans know nothing about the Obamas. The majority of the people in this country will start to pay attention to this election after Labor Day, as we saw movement for the Democratic Primaries last year.

As we see Cindy McCain, back out on the beaten path of rehashing the Michelle Obama patriotism comments. It is peculiar this time around to see a wife of a presidential candidate to directly go against the other wife of the other presidential candidate. But carrying the dirty water, Cindy McCain did this morning on GMA (Good Morning America).



This coming from a woman with a laundry list of issues from her past. Remember, this is going to be personal assault on the Obamas from the GOP. It is just beginning.

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I like these videos of Michelle on The View, yesterday. Enjoy.


part one


part two


part three


part four


bonus

and if you loved Michelle's dress from the view, it is located here.

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I don't know if you know about this, but on Monday at the Detroit Rally for the Gore endorsement of Obama, two muslim women in their native garb were denied sitting behind Obama and Gore during the televised rally.

My sentiments, what a shame. This should not have happened, period. The Obama Campaign called the women and apologized, but there is an article in the New York Times of how the campaign is tightening its control of the image of Obama.

Here is the beginning and you can read the rest here.

The Obama campaign is vigilantly fighting erroneous information that has spread on the Internet that he is Muslim — he is, in fact, Christian — and emphasizing his patriotism and American story, with flags in abundance. In Washington on Wednesday, he invited photographers to his meeting with new members of his national security team and retired military officers supporting his candidacy.

The campaign on Monday barred cameras from a large gathering of African-American civic leaders Mr. Obama attended. It recently refused to provide names of religious figures with whom Mr. Obama met in Chicago and directed some of them to avoid reporters by using a special exit. And on Wednesday, the campaign orchestrated Michelle Obama’s appearance on the friendly set of “The View” and a flattering spread in the pages of Us Weekly.

“One of the challenges that we are confronting very directly is dealing with the rumors and the e-mails, the inaccurate information about Senator Obama and Michelle Obama,” Ms. Dunn said, “and we’re going to deal with that very aggressively through a number of mediums.”

While the strategy has won compliments from political professionals of both parties, who say Mr. Obama’s campaign is exhibiting a high level of discipline, it has also created some early turbulence for a candidate who has run on promises of openness and cultivated a grass-roots following and a cottage industry of homemade campaign videos, memorabilia and street murals.

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Huge fundraiser at the Kennedy Camp tonight. Walk in price, $28,500, per person. Expect a sellout crowd.

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obama ahead in the key states

So how is your day going????

Cindy McCain, Doing the Heavy Lifting Against Michelle Obama

We all know that Michelle was a smash on The View, today.

See below.



But when your campaign is tanking and you are in the weeds, what else do you do?

::

You go after controversy, or keep the controversy in the light.

This is exactly what Cindy McCain is doing. Even though First Lady Laura Bush gave Michelle a pass.

"I don't know why she said what she said," Mrs. McCain explains in an interview with ABC News' Kate Snow airing on "Good Morning America" Thursday. "Everyone has their own experience. I don't know why she said what she said, all I know is that I have always been proud of my country."

She had to make this statement and elaborate more on what Michelle said "that for the first time in my life I am proud of my country" statement, which if you watch The View was explained and overblown from the get-go.

I find this sleazy. Why? Because the McCain Campaign can not be happy with the news today of the post Hillary Clinton polling. All of these battleground states, so far, are not whistling dixie for him, and it has shown the strength of Barack Obama going forward to the fall.

Cindy McCain does not understand what struggle is if you asked her to spell it. A woman who is a 100M Beer Heiress, or Beer Queen, who jets her husband all over the country is the last to be pointing any finger at patriotism.

What about her own story? Her drug addiction? Her stealing from her AVMT for her prescription drug use? What about that?

To make matters worse, McCain admitted, she had stolen the drugs from the American Voluntary Medical Team, her own charity, and had been investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

What about Cindy McCain nee Hensley running around with a very married man with children? Is that respectable or acceptable behavior? I don't know about you, but my mother told me when I was single, if they are married, keep steppin'. Was there any empathy not only on Cindy's part but John McCain's for his wife Carol?

But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.

When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons

had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.

Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.

Obviously, many feelings were put aside for selfish ones, and hey John McCain got what he wanted a "trophy wife".

And let us not step into Cindy's not so glamorous lie about baking cookies. I mean, I don't know about you, but does anyone even believe she knows a recipe for cookies? Sorry, she don't look the type.

So, now we have Cindy going on Good Morning America, tomorrow, to keep carrying the negative water.

In a rare move, Mrs. McCain also challenged Mrs. Obama's remark, saying as she introduced her husband at a rally shortly after Obama's remarks, "I'm proud of my country, I don't know if you heard those words earlier. I'm very proud of my country."

Well, I don't care for Cindy McCain, at all. I never thought much about going after family members, but this stinks of high heaven.

While she is busy pushing the Michelle controversy, she need to clean up her own house and tell her husband to stop calling her the "c" word. Yes, a youtube is blowing up and about to go viral as I type.

The clean version, click here.

In the end, what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and that is politics in a nutshell. And if Cindy McCain want to continue to carry the negative water against Michelle Obama, let her answer those questions about her judgment and choices she made in her life. After all, it is relevant to being the next First Lady of this land.

Morning Break....

Back Together......

Barack and Hillary joining up for a joint appearance next week.

Hillary Clinton will join Barack Obama for a joint appearance in Washington next week to persuade her donors to begin giving to the Democrats' nominee, the Daily News has learned.

It's the first known plan to bring together the victor and vanquished from the Democrat primary race and put their pledges of unity for the fall campaign into action.

::



Reintroducing Michelle

Barack and Michelle Obama is on the cover of US Magazine. A launch of reintroducing Barack, but moreso, Michelle to the general public.

A vicious internet smear is now assaulting Michelle Obama. We already know about Barack, but now it is Michelle. Which is why it is important for us to correct any smears by pointing folks in the correct direction. "Fight the Smears".

Conservative columnists accuse her of being unpatriotic and say she simmers with undigested racial anger. A blogger who supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton circulates unfounded claims that Mrs. Obama gave an accusatory speech in her church about the sins of “whitey.” Mrs. Obama shakes her head.

“You are amazed sometimes at how deep the lies can be,” she says in an interview. Referring to a character in a 1970s sitcom, she adds: “I mean, ‘whitey’? That’s something that George Jefferson would say. Anyone who says that doesn’t know me. They don’t know the life I’ve lived. They don’t know anything about me.”

Now her husband’s presidential campaign is giving her image a subtle makeover, with a new speech in the works to emphasize her humble roots and a tough new chief of staff. On Wednesday, Mrs. Obama will do a guest turn on “The View,” the daytime talk show on ABC, with an eye toward softening her reputation.

Michelle is referring to the awful 'whitey' smear thanks to Larry Johnson, that is being passed along on the internet, but no tape exists and all these people know it. The rundown on this smear, here.

My take on this, I am glad, AGAIN, that the Obama Campaign is taking these smears seriously. I have been out in the field and it is INCREDIBLE what people believe that comes in the inbox of their email. This takes up a lot of time to explain and debunk these smears. Now, as the canvass season is upon us, I will just make some copies of the information of the website and give it to people who ask questions about this.

Always remember John McCain has A LOT in his closet, still undisclosed including calling his wife the "C" word. And yes, that is true, it is documented, and it was WITNESSED by people who saw him and heard him call his wife that. Will Cindy McCain the 100M Beer Queen be a target?

The working-class credentials of McCain, 71, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, are also thin. McCain's wife, Cindy, who inherited Anheuser-Busch Cos. distributor Hensley & Co., is worth about $100 million.

Not from the Obama Campaign, but as this campaign is unwinding expect some negative emails coming to you SOON.

Make no mistake about this, it will get WORSE before BETTER. When you are the GOP and have a piss-poor record of leadership in this country, what else can you do? Go negative and attack character.

We all have a responsibility to debunk this crap, and debunk it we must.

p.s. Michelle is on 'The View' today....fyi....

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New Polls and Obama is up in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio

Quinnipiac Poll was released this morning and has Obama up in Florida 47-43 over McCain.

Gets better, Obama 48, McCain 42 in Ohio

And Obama 52, McCain 40 in Pennsylvania!!!

Yes, this reads great, but remember this is early and the fall has not hit yet. Expect serious negative campaigning from the GOP and expect us to work like crazy this summer and fall.

But am I smiling? Yes. But only for a minute. Read the poll, here.

Also, Obama ahead 47, McCain 42 in Reuters Poll.

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Bush echos McCain for drilling off shore.

President Bush plans to make a renewed push Wednesday to get Congress to end a long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, echoing a call by GOP presidential candidate John McCain.

Congressional Democrats have opposed lifting the prohibitions on energy development on nearly all federal Outer Continental Shelf waters for more than a quarter-century, including waters along both the East and West coasts.

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Cindy McCain, we know you as the 100M Beer Queen, yet you claim to baking cookies?? Please we know that you don't bake your own cookies, yet alone even have recipes for any. But here we go again, 'recipegate' another lifting of recipes to call it 'your own'. Read it here.

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Obama Expresses Disappointment in McCain's Silence on Wife Attacks, see video here.

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DNC calls for investigating McCain for Election Law Violations

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Obama on Solis-Doyle

"Patti Solis Doyle I think is a terrific experienced campaign hand. She's from Chicago. Her brother and I organized on the southeast side of Chicago when I first moved to Chicago as a community organizer, so I've known the family for a very long time. I think that she will bring not only a set of skills that we're gonna need as we put our ticket together but shes going to be a terrific adviser and offer insight and judgment that will help us."

Missed Evening Wrapup...here.

So, how is your morning going?