The 2008 US Presidential Election Thread

[TRAGChick]

TragChick...is that your avatar making the pages go to scroll? Can you resize it smaller?

Hey there....

Thanx for the suggestion....however, I don't think it's my av....

Things are still "horizontal scroll"....

[scarygirl]

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html



This women is being trashed because of this creep. Every police force has one or two of them and I'll bet that we all know of a few in our towns and he's still on the force.

She tarnished herself by going for backwoods justice AFTER he had been investigated. She punished an innocent man for refusing to help her with her vigilante agenda. If she would have stuck to the rules of her office this wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the guy is a jerk but it wasn't her job to try and take him down. The top cop should have kicked Todd's ass for trying to intimidate him to fabricate shit about the case. Read the report. It is bipartisan. It's not about left or right, it's about someone trying to buck the law and dish out her own brand of justice. A smalltown beauty queen didn't get her way and had a tantrum. No big deal but she brought it on herself without anyone elses help.

The ex BIL/TRooper tasered his own son and drank on the job while driviing his parole car. One or both of those instances should have got him fired.

[whirlwind]

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html



This women is being trashed because of this creep. Every police force has one or two of them and I'll bet that we all know of a few in our towns and he's still on the force.

She tarnished herself by going for backwoods justice AFTER he had been investigated. She punished an innocent man for refusing to help her with her vigilante agenda. If she would have stuck to the rules of her office this wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the guy is a jerk but it wasn't her job to try and take him down. The top cop should have kicked Todd's ass for trying to intimidate him to fabricate shit about the case. Read the report. It is bipartisan. It's not about left or right, it's about someone trying to buck the law and dish out her own brand of justice. A smalltown beauty queen didn't get her way and had a tantrum. No big deal but she brought it on herself without anyone elses help.

Sure looks like he was not doing his job, kinda like the bishops that simply sent the priests to another parish.

[Don]

http://www.adn.com/politics/story/476430.html



This women is being trashed because of this creep. Every police force has one or two of them and I'll bet that we all know of a few in our towns and he's still on the force.

She tarnished herself by going for backwoods justice AFTER he had been investigated. She punished an innocent man for refusing to help her with her vigilante agenda. If she would have stuck to the rules of her office this wouldn't be an issue. Maybe the guy is a jerk but it wasn't her job to try and take him down. The top cop should have kicked Todd's ass for trying to intimidate him to fabricate shit about the case. Read the report. It is bipartisan. It's not about left or right, it's about someone trying to buck the law and dish out her own brand of justice. A smalltown beauty queen didn't get her way and had a tantrum. No big deal but she brought it on herself without anyone elses help.

The ex BIL/TRooper tasered his own son and drank on the job while driviing his parole car. One or both of those instances should have got him fired.

Correct, but it wasn't her job to send her husband over to harrass the TopCop about it. It was a case of “Do you know who I am? I am bigger than the law and if you don't reopen this case, you'll be sorry.”

Read the report people. We don't need hillbilly vigilantes in the WhiteHouse.

[Enigma869]

I just saw news footage of McCain setting a yahoo supporter straight, at one of his rallies, today. The woman stood up and said Obama was "An Arab", and McCain said "No Ma'am...He is not an Arab. He is an American and a decent family man, who I just happen to have some differences with". Kudos to McCain for setting some of his delusional supporters straight!


John from Boston

[TRAGChick]

I just saw news footage of McCain setting a yahoo supporter straight, at one of his rallies, today.

The woman stood up and said Obama was "An Arab", and McCain said "No Ma'am...He is not an Arab. He is an American and a decent family man, who I just happen to have some differences with".

Kudos to McCain for setting some of his delusional supporters straight!

John from Boston

**Getting off floor; back into chair**

THANK YOU, JOHN.....As a DemoBrat, I appreciate it!!

[Don]

I just saw news footage of McCain setting a yahoo supporter straight, at one of his rallies, today. The woman stood up and said Obama was "An Arab", and McCain said "No Ma'am...He is not an Arab. He is an American and a decent family man, who I just happen to have some differences with". Kudos to McCain for setting some of his delusional supporters straight!


John from Boston

That person was probaby more of a Palin follower than a McCain supporter. She's brought a whole new demographic to the republicans. For the Party I have supported the last 20 years, this is beyond embarrassing.

[scarygirl]

McCain is damned if he does and damned if he don't. Personally, I think he should come out swinging harder.

[TRAGChick]

That person was probaby more of a Palin follower than a McCain supporter. She's brought a whole new demographic to the republicans. For the Party I have supported the last 20 years, this is beyond embarrassing.

I was talking with a good friend earlier today; she said that some "hate-monger" was on WOR radio in NY to try to get people to believe that Barack Obama was born in the Middle East - NOT America - so, he cannot be President, BECAUSE HE'S NOT AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.

I decided to do a "snopes-search" on Mr. Obama today; here's what I found:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/bi ... ficate.asp

WOW.....This is how ignorant the RepubliCAN'Ts are getting!!

[7 Wishes]

McCain is damned if he does and damned if he don't. Personally, I think he should come out swinging harder.

If he was swinging any harder (or with any less accuracy, metaphorically) he's miss a roundhouse and knock himself out.

[Enigma869]

That person was probaby more of a Palin follower than a McCain supporter. She's brought a whole new demographic to the republicans. For the Party I have supported the last 20 years, this is beyond embarrassing.

Good on you, Gunbot. This is probably the most rational post I've read from a card-carrying Republican on this board! This is the very first post that I've seen from a Republican who admits to some embarrassment about this campaign. I have to tell you...After watching the "Sarah Palin Chronicles" (i.e. the Katie Couric interviews), I would have been beyond embarrassed, regardless of which side I supported. I was a huge Ronald Reagan fan, and if big Ronnie ever gave an interview like that, I would have crucified him, every bit as much as I've ripped Puppet Palin. I just don't get people defending a candidate who couldn't be less qualified, if she tried! I'm still stunned that McCain picked her. I understand his strategy (i.e. trying to grab some Hillary supporters and the woman vote). That said, McCain is a man of immense experience, and I just thought he would have been more astute with his selection. This is definitely McCain's last chance at this office. Unfortunately for he and his supporters, his selection of a VP candidate has sealed his fate, in my opinion.


John from Boston

[conversationpc]

That person was probaby more of a Palin follower than a McCain supporter. She's brought a whole new demographic to the republicans. For the Party I have supported the last 20 years, this is beyond embarrassing.

Palin may or may not be a lot of things but a racist isn't one of them.

[Uno_up]

[Don]

That person was probaby more of a Palin follower than a McCain supporter. She's brought a whole new demographic to the republicans. For the Party I have supported the last 20 years, this is beyond embarrassing.

Palin may or may not be a lot of things but a racist isn't one of them.

Her rhetoric is attracting a type of individual that will define America's perception of her, whether fair or not. McCain got boo'd for his comments defending Barack. Palin is fast becoming an albatross that will break McCain's back.

[conversationpc]

Here's a great article from RealClearPolitics.com...

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people's faces. They seem determined to shut people up.

That's what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Kurtz had been researching Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago -- papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.

Obama fans jammed WGN's phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg's example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.

Other Obama supporters have threatened critics with criminal prosecution. In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false." I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.

These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can't abide having citizens hear contrary views.

To their credit, some liberal old-timers -- like House Appropriations Chairman David Obey -- voted against the "fairness doctrine," in line with their longstanding support of free speech. But you can expect the "fairness doctrine" to get another vote if Barack Obama wins and Democrats increase their congressional majorities.

Corporate liberals have done their share in shutting down anti-liberal speech, too. "Saturday Night Live" ran a spoof of the financial crisis that skewered Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and liberal contributors Herbert and Marion Sandler, who sold toxic-waste-filled Golden West to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Kind of surprising, but not for long. The tape of the broadcast disappeared from NBC's Website and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Frank and the Sandlers. Evidently NBC and its parent, General Electric, don't want people to hear speech that attacks liberals.

Then there's the Democrats' "card check" legislation, which would abolish secret ballot elections in determining whether employees are represented by unions. The unions' strategy is obvious: Send a few thugs over to employees' homes -- we know where you live -- and get them to sign cards that will trigger a union victory without giving employers a chance to be heard.

Once upon a time, liberals prided themselves, with considerable reason, as the staunchest defenders of free speech. Union organizers in the 1930s and 1940s made the case that they should have access to employees to speak freely to them, and union leaders like George Meany and Walter Reuther were ardent defenders of the First Amendment.

Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articl ... peech.html

[Saint John]

McCain got boo'd for his comments defending Barack.

As well he should have. Obama is a terrorist sympathizer who sat in a church where anti-American and anti-white slurs were the soup du jour for 20+ years. Additionally, his church gave Louis Farrakhan an award...a man who is openly anti-white and anti-semitic. Obama thought so much of the actions of this church that he had the ringleader, Jeremiah Wright, marry him. He then appointed him as his person for "spiritual guidance." The guy's own wife openly admitted that it took her almost 50 years before she was ever proud of this country. There's nothing decent about Obama...nothing. He's was influenced in his early years by a communist rapist (Frank Marshall Davis) and later learned and mastered Chicago's "machine" politics as a well spoken street hustler. He is a good orator and dresses well, but beneath the facade is a scary individual who has never been surrounded by anyone decent...whether it be his wife, his pastor, his whore mother, his trashball father, commie rapist Frank Marshall Davis or domestic terrorist William Ayers. Barack Obama is a piece of shit.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Here's a great article from RealClearPolitics.com...

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people's faces. They seem determined to shut people up.

That's what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg's WGN radio program in Chicago. Kurtz had been researching Obama's relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago -- papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.

Obama fans jammed WGN's phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg's example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.

Other Obama supporters have threatened critics with criminal prosecution. In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false." I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama's ties to Ayers.

These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can't abide having citizens hear contrary views.

To their credit, some liberal old-timers -- like House Appropriations Chairman David Obey -- voted against the "fairness doctrine," in line with their longstanding support of free speech. But you can expect the "fairness doctrine" to get another vote if Barack Obama wins and Democrats increase their congressional majorities.

Corporate liberals have done their share in shutting down anti-liberal speech, too. "Saturday Night Live" ran a spoof of the financial crisis that skewered Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and liberal contributors Herbert and Marion Sandler, who sold toxic-waste-filled Golden West to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Kind of surprising, but not for long. The tape of the broadcast disappeared from NBC's Website and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Frank and the Sandlers. Evidently NBC and its parent, General Electric, don't want people to hear speech that attacks liberals.

Then there's the Democrats' "card check" legislation, which would abolish secret ballot elections in determining whether employees are represented by unions. The unions' strategy is obvious: Send a few thugs over to employees' homes -- we know where you live -- and get them to sign cards that will trigger a union victory without giving employers a chance to be heard.

Once upon a time, liberals prided themselves, with considerable reason, as the staunchest defenders of free speech. Union organizers in the 1930s and 1940s made the case that they should have access to employees to speak freely to them, and union leaders like George Meany and Walter Reuther were ardent defenders of the First Amendment.

Today's liberals seem to be taking their marching orders from other quarters. Specifically, from the college and university campuses where administrators, armed with speech codes, have for years been disciplining and subjecting to sensitivity training any students who dare to utter thoughts that liberals find offensive. The campuses that used to pride themselves as zones of free expression are now the least free part of our society.

Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech that they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims that this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment. In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articl ... peech.html

Already posted and already debunked due to the author claiming an SNL sketch was censored due to a liberal media conspiracy.
In fact, the sketch was yanked cuz it targeted a real life couple for death.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Palin may or may not be a lot of things but a racist isn't one of them.

"Sambo beat the bitch" anyone?
I guess that is more of her unique brand of folksy charm.

[The_Noble_Cause]

I just saw news footage of McCain setting a yahoo supporter straight, at one of his rallies, today. The woman stood up and said Obama was "An Arab", and McCain said "No Ma'am...He is not an Arab. He is an American and a decent family man, who I just happen to have some differences with". Kudos to McCain for setting some of his delusional supporters straight!


John from Boston

This was posted last night already.
McCain also went on to tell the audience that they need not fear an Obama presidency.
He got boo-ed for that as well.

[conversationpc]

Already posted and already debunked due to the author claiming an SNL sketch was censored due to a liberal media conspiracy.
In fact, the sketch was yanked cuz it targeted a real life couple for death.

The article makes several other valid points.

[conversationpc]

Palin may or may not be a lot of things but a racist isn't one of them.

"Sambo beat the bitch" anyone?
I guess that is more of her unique brand of folksy charm.

According to Snopes.com, the veracity of this accusation is unproven and suspect...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/sambo.asp

It may or may not be true, but a definitive determination can't be made since anonymous sources can't be contacted for verification, and no one else has come forward to corroborate the account.

Funny how you'd believe the account of an anonymous source not supported by any other evidence or witnesses, yet there is more evidence to support a connection between Obama and Ayers, yet that must just be a desperate smear attempt by the McCain campaign and the Republicans.

[Don]

Venue change announced for Gov. Palin Rally in Richmond on Monday

10/11/2008 8:19:00 AM

Demand for tickets overwhelming

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Richmond, Virginia (October 11, 2008) – The McCain/Palin campaign has announced a venue change for Governor Sarah Palin's campaign stop in Richmond on Monday. Due to overwhelming demand for rally tickets, the Richmond rally has been moved from the Arthur Ashe Center to the Richmond International Raceway. In addition, the program time has been moved to 2:00 p.m. Doors will open at 11:00 a.m.

"Enthusiasm continues to run high for the McCain/Palin ticket, and Virginians are excited to welcome back Senator McCain and Gov. Palin in Virginia Beach and in Richmond. If the constant flood of people visiting our headquarters and Victory offices isn't an indication of support for this ticket, then the fact that for the second time in as many visits, we've had to switch rally locations to accommodate the tens of thousands that want to attend should be," said Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.

Sarah by herself selling out Race Tracks.....

Maybe the anti-christ isn't a man after all.

[conversationpc]

Maybe the anti-christ isn't a man after all.

Watch out, TNC will think you are serious.

[nolippin]

Op-Ed Columnist
The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12rich.html

By FRANK RICH
Published: October 11, 2008
IF you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.

Some voters told reporters that they didn’t want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history — in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries.

“I’ve got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying,” Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded.

Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.

All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.

We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.

Obama can hardly be held accountable for Ayers’s behavior 40 years ago, but at least McCain and Palin can try to take some responsibility for the behavior of their own supporters in 2008. What’s troubling here is not only the candidates’ loose inflammatory talk but also their refusal to step in promptly and strongly when someone responds to it with bloodthirsty threats in a crowded arena. Joe Biden had it exactly right when he expressed concern last week that “a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop midsentence and turn and condemn that.” To stay silent is to pour gas on the fires.

It wasn’t always thus with McCain. In February he loudly disassociated himself from a speaker who brayed “Barack Hussein Obama” when introducing him at a rally in Ohio. Now McCain either backpedals with tardy, pro forma expressions of respect for his opponent or lets second-tier campaign underlings release boilerplate disavowals after ugly incidents like the chilling Jim Crow-era flashback last week when a Florida sheriff ranted about “Barack Hussein Obama” at a Palin rally while in full uniform.

From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes.

McCain, who is no racist, turned to this desperate strategy only as Obama started to pull ahead. The tone was set at the Republican convention, with Rudy Giuliani’s mocking dismissal of Obama as an “only in America” affirmative-action baby. We also learned then that the McCain campaign had recruited as a Palin handler none other than Tucker Eskew, the South Carolina consultant who had worked for George W. Bush in the notorious 2000 G.O.P. primary battle where the McCains and their adopted Bangladeshi daughter were slimed by vicious racist rumors.

No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago’s mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was “regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.” In the ’60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.”This is the writer who found his way into a speech by a potential vice president at a national political convention. It’s astonishing there’s been no demand for a public accounting from the McCain campaign. Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan — or William Ayers — in Denver.

The operatives who would have Palin quote Pegler have been at it ever since. A key indicator came two weeks after the convention, when the McCain campaign ran its first ad tying Obama to the mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Rather than make its case by using a legitimate link between Fannie and Obama (or other Democratic leaders), the McCain forces chose a former Fannie executive who had no real tie to Obama or his campaign but did have a black face that could dominate the ad’s visuals.

There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn’t been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is “a microcosm of America” without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior writer from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place.

Could the old racial politics still be determinative? I’ve long been skeptical of the incessant press prognostications (and liberal panic) that this election will be decided by racist white men in the Rust Belt. Now even the dimmest bloviators have figured out that Americans are riveted by the color green, not black — as in money, not energy. Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign “suspension,” a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage.

To see how fast the tide is moving, just look at North Carolina. On July 4 this year — the day that the godfather of modern G.O.P. racial politics, Jesse Helms, died — The Charlotte Observer reported that strategists of both parties agreed Obama’s chances to win the state fell “between slim and none.” Today, as Charlotte reels from the implosion of Wachovia, the McCain-Obama race is a dead heat in North Carolina and Helms’s Republican successor in the Senate, Elizabeth Dole, is looking like a goner.

But we’re not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.

[conversationpc]

No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago’s mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was “regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.” In the ’60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.”This is the writer who found his way into a speech by a potential vice president at a national political convention. It’s astonishing there’s been no demand for a public accounting from the McCain campaign. Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan — or William Ayers — in Denver.

I'd be surprised if Palin even knew the source of the quote considering she couldn't even come up with the name of a newspaper or magazine.

[treetopovskaya]

i think some people are scared it's going to be mccain/palin! the more scared they get the nastier they get. not only that but obama is not killing them in the polls... no "landslide" & that just pisses people off! woohoo! }=C))

you know what... palin is just a normal person... not perfect. i don't agree with everything she stands for but i find her a breath of fresh air & the gal has some balls. if i were her i think i would have packed it in already. you would find me in a corner crying somewhere. she is tough!

nobody's talking about palin guest starring on snl at the end of the month. }:C)

[brywool]

yeah, now let's see a photo of their parents and kids around him, bet they just LOVE Bush.

[The_Noble_Cause]

No plastic photo-op turkey?

[The_Noble_Cause]

Watch out, TNC will think you are serious.

If you think Beck posed that question to Hagee solely for a laugh, and not because a significant part of his audience demanded it, I’m afraid you don’t know your own party’s base.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Funny how you'd believe the account of an anonymous source not supported by any other evidence or witnesses, yet there is more evidence to support a connection between Obama and Ayers, yet that must just be a desperate smear attempt by the McCain campaign and the Republicans.

I haven't denied a connection between Obama and Ayers.