Tag: John McCain (page 8)

Sarah Palin today on the campaign trail:

Palin told a group of donors at a private airport, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She also said, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

The Obama campaign called Palin's remarks offensive but not surprising in light of news stories detailing the campaign's come-from-behind offensive. "What's clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy," Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a statement.

More desperation to come. The New York Times reports McCain said yesterday at a rally in Pueblo, Colorado "the gloves will come off" against Obama Tuesday night. Meaning, during the debate and in the ads to follow.

Big Tent Democrat disagrees with Bob Herbert who points out that a McCain/Palin victory is dangerous because if something happens to McCain, we'd have the clueless wonder as President.

I agree with Bob Herbert and it is the single most important reason to defeat McCain/Palin. The prospect of her assuming the presidency if need be, even temporarily, is terrifying and unacceptable.

Nothing better shows the poor judgment of John McCain than his Hail Mary pass of choosing Sarah Palin, a politician with no relevant national experience, serious knowledge gaps on important issues and questionable ethical judgment to be his running mate. By putting his personal quest to be President over the well-being of our nation, he has demonstrated he lacks the character to be President. He sold us out for the sake of his own ambition. The radical right is now in a position to propel McCain/Palin to victory and then McCain will owe them. [More...]

Today's Presidential Polls:

From the new issue of Rolling Stone: Make-Believe Maverick -- a ten page article on John McCain that finds:

A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.

Also check out two companion features in the same issue:

• The Double-Talk Express:

  From tax cuts to torture, John McCain has flip-flopped on a host of issues - including his own immigration bill

• The Truth about Sarah Palin:

  Sarah Palin's credentials as a "reformer" are nothing but spin. She has sided with Big Oil, lobbied to increase pork spending and abused her public power to carry out personal vendettas. Here's a guide to separating myth from fact.

Yesterday I wrote that if we start seeing personal attack ads in the battleground states, it's a sign McCain knows it's just about over for him. Looks like the same goes for his supporters.

Via Politico, it's begun.

The conservative Judicial Confirmation Network goes up today with an ad reminding voters in two key states about Obama's ties to Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. Representatives for the group say it will be a "$1 million ad and grassroots effort" around the veep debate tomorrow and the opening of the new Supreme Court session Monday.

My view in a nutshell: Gov. Sarah Palin is the reason John McCain is behind in the polls in the battleground states. Yes, the issue on people's minds is the economy. Who would take a chance on having her in charge of economic policy if something happened to McCain?

There's not enough difference between McCain and Obama on the bailout bill. It's Palin that is killing him, particularly, I think, in Florida. No one except evangelicals want an evangelical with extremist views in the White House.

Even if Palin doesn't stumble tomorrow night, the debate won't help McCain .

Unless there's a huge terror or national security threat, areas in which McCain still outpolls Obama, he's history. And Palin sank him. [More...]

Despite the McCain campaign's assertion that it did not know Gwen Ifill, moderator of tomorrow's VP debate, was writing a book on politics, race and Sen. Barack Obama, as Judd Legum points out, it was in the Washington Times two weeks before McCain agreed on August 6 to Ifill as a moderator. A simple Lexis search would have found it.

"We have an awkward history about how to talk about race in the nation and in newsrooms," says Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent for PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and author of "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," slated for publication early next year.

The takeaway here is only the incompetence of the McCain campaign to do its homework. More...

The country's largest union of Registered Nurses with 85,000 members released this ad today in six battleground states -- Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri.

The ad focuses on the possibility of a Sarah Palin presidency due to John McCain's health issues. From the e-mail I received from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee:

Fostered by the growing concern among healthcare professionals over the health status of Sen. John McCain, the ad also provides a reminder of some of the controversial moments of Palin's record as governor of Alaska and mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

More...

Time Magazine released a poll today. It has Obama ahead of McCain, 50% to 43%. And Gov. Sarah Palin is not bringing women to McCain's side. Obama leads among women by 17%:

Among the poll's most dramatic findings: McCain is losing female voters faster than Sarah Palin attracted them after the Republican National Convention. Obama leads McCain by 17 points with women, 55%-38%. Before the conventions, women preferred Obama by a margin of 10 points, 49%-39%. After McCain picked Palin as his running mate, the gap narrowed to a virtual tie, with Obama holding a 1-point margin, 48%-47%.

Here's an e-mail that is making the rounds among lawyers today:

How Racism Works:

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said 'I do' to? What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

More...

I've been writing about Sen. John McCain's intent to attack Barack Obama for his coal position in the battleground states where coal is important.

Sunday, I saw the ad on TV here in Denver.

Newsweek fact checks the ad and finds it false, but I wrote a much longer post over at 5280.com yesterday detailing just how false, based on Obama's coal record since his days as a state legislator in Illinois.

Of all the reasons to oppose John McCain, the liberal blogger meme developing that he voted against Joe Biden's 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill is among the silliest and most misinformed.

H.R.3355, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, was one of the worst bills ever passed. The Republicans voted against it largely because it contained the ban on semi-assault weapons and represented a mass and over-federalization of state crimes.

Tucked among the provisions providing for more than 60 new death penalty offenses, $9.7 billion for new prisons, authorization of more prosecution of juveniles as adults, elimination of educational Pell grants to low income prison inmates, limitations on federal funds to states that didn't require offenders to serve 85% of their sentences, creation of a federal three-strikes law, limits on bail for those accused of sex offenses, criminalizing membership in a street gang, ratcheting up drug and other crime penalties and creating 50 new federal crimes, were Joe Biden's Violence Against Women Act and Safe Streets for Women Act. [More...]