Daily Current Events Reads 10/20/2008

• Conservatives fearful as election draws near | Politics | Reuters

  This is an example of sloppy language. Many “Conservatives” have quit the Republican Party because the New Bush Republicans are no longer “Conservative” in the classic sense.

  So this headline is misleading. It should read, “Bush Republicans fearful as election draws near” – because those are the “base” that McCain/Palin has allowed their former Bush campaign manager to cater to.

  Read yesterday’s post for several examples of REAL conservatives – philosophical ones, not brand name ones – who have jumped ship on McCain for _betraying_ Conservatism.

  And read today’s for conservative icon Colin Powell’s similar move.

  tags: elections08, conservative, mccain, orwell, rhetoric, media, medialiteracy

Much more below the fold….

• A Senator’s Honor comes cheap these days by Elizabeth Madrigal — politics, election 08, obama for president | Gather – Annotated

  Ouch.

  tags: elections08, mccain

  • John Sidney McCain, III would like the average voter to think of him like Sarah Palin does.  A regular ole Joe Six-Pack.  My, my, that fits, doesn’t it?  The grandson and son of Admirals.  A Navy pilot allowed to crash three planes and still keep his wings.
  • What really bothers me about McCain, however, is not his background.  People cannot help being born with a silver spoon in their mouth, nor can they be held responsible for the grand success of their forbearers.  They must be judged on their own failures and accomplishments, which an amazing article in Rolling Stone Magazine seeks to set forth for your perusal.
    Read the whole story here: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain
    • The RS article is an eye-opener. Even CNN’s one-hour bio of McCain showed very little that spelled either substance or success. He kept screwing up, and his Admiral father kept bailing him out.Divorcing his wife to marry Cindy gave him a piggy-bank into the congress via Arizona. He used her money to buy a house in a district he could win, and did so.

      His Lebanon stand against Reagan was right, but also safe. It won him a maverick’s reputation. But beyond that, there’s not much there there re: the maverick thing. – post by cburell

  • Senator Obama has been more than forthcoming with his ideas.  He is not ‘waiting’ until he is president, as his generous and fine intellect has been working on ways to keep America the America I know and love.  He had been trying to prevent these problems, too, but nobody listened to a Junior Senator, so he is running for president.  They did listen to you Senator McCain.

    Oh, I’m sorry, I did not mean to denigrate your contributions.  You have had some ideas too, John III.  They all began and ended with the concept of deregulation, which is exactly what Charles Keating, a convicted felon, used to cheat people.  He was your friend, vacation buddy, and even your families were close.  Didn’t you suspect something?  Looking back it seems obvious to all of us that you should have, but you were used to the fine life, weren’t you?  Nothing too good for John Sidney McCain, III.

    So when you are asked about your ideas for an economic recovery, what do you answer?  Who is Barack Hussein Obama?  Nice one, John, but according to the polls that doesn’t seem to be working too well for you.

    Obama has had some brilliant ideas to try to calm the panic that is tumbling our economy.  These have included increasing the FDIC insurance on bank deposits to $250,000 from $100,000 (a limit which was set in the 1930′s).  Now he is suggesting that there be a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and that any bank that receives a cash injection from the government be compelled to renegotiate and/or assist homeowners having trouble making their payments.

    This is the kind of thinking and action we need on the national level.  No more partisanship and fighting or denigrating the other candidate’s patriotism, heritage, religion or lack thereof, or commitment to this country.  Before you, John Sidney McCain, III, have the b*lls to ask Barack Hussein Obama about his friendships, I think you have more than a little ‘esplainin’ to do.

    • More people are turning the “middle name” rhetoric the McCain campaign started against “Barrack HUSSEIN Obama” against “John SYDNEY McCain THE THIRD.”Turnabout is fair play. – post by cburell

• Average Joe can’t fix America’s pipes | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press – Annotated

  Mitch Albom at his finest.

  tags: elections08, mccain, taxes

  • McCain said that with Obama in charge, guys like Joe would “not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business.”

    Jackpot! Joe the Plumber, to Republicans, was instantly a working-class hero, a good, honest family man who just wanted to start a company and was gonna get socked by Obama’s socialist ideas.

  • McCain said that with Obama in charge, guys like Joe would “not be able to realize the American dream of owning their own business.”

  • And then Joe opened his mouth.

    Nothing is as it seems to be

    It turns out Joe has no plumber’s license.

    Joe isn’t in the plumbers union.

    Joe never did a plumbers apprenticeship.

    Joe’s business likely would not be taxed under Obama’s proposal.

    Joe might even get a tax cut under Obama’s proposal.

    Joe doesn’t believe in Social Security.

    Joe’s first name isn’t Joe, it’s Samuel.

    And Samuel hasn’t paid his taxes.

    And that’s just as we go to press. By the time you read this, Joe may be a member of the Weathermen. None of this surprises me. It is what you get in a country that seems to think everything is a form of “American Idol.”

    Look. There is a reason we call “the average guy” average. Because he’s in the middle. Average. When you aim for the White House, to lead the free world, to hold the fate of the Earth in your hands, you shouldn’t aspire to average. And this election shouldn’t be about average.

    • More blame to lay at the feet of Rick Davis, McCain’s Bush-man campaign manager. First, he doesn’t vet Sarah Palin before choosing her, and discovers too late he’s got a witch-doctor preacher, a pregnant-out-of-wedlock teen, and an abuse of power ethics scandal on his hands.Now they run with Joe the Plumber before doing their homework, and have egg in the face again.

      Little-known fact: Joe is a relative – how close, I don’t know – of Enron CEO and embezzlement crooks (and McCain crony) Charles Keating. Google it. This may or may not be a plant from the start. – post by cburell

  • Now, personally, I am no fan of Obama’s tax plan — not because of him, but because I have never seen higher taxes result in more efficient government. But I also know that whatever Obama or McCain are touting now is unlikely to pass as is. Remember Bill Clinton’s health care plan? He ran on that, and after eight years, it still hadn’t happened.

    By the time the House and the Senate get done with tax proposals, they rarely look like the originals, so who knows who will pay what next year?

    What we do know is grabbing the “regular” guy and holding him up is an old political trick that rarely works. And sometimes it backfires on both sides.

    • Uncommon common sense here. – post by cburell

• McCain remarks on Obama ‘socialism’ viewed as a stretch | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | National Politics

  Good for Dallas for taking on this classic bit of knee-jerk labeling.

  tags: elections08, mccain

  • William Wallace, a former vice president and chief operating officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said the country’s progressive tax code, which Mr. McCain does not propose abolishing, is “socialist in nature.

    “It’s a term that gets people’s attention, and therefore I understand why a political candidate might want to use it,” said Dr. Wallace, a professor at the University of North Texas. “But to say we are headed toward socialism is a vast overstatement in my book.”

    Congress’ decision this month to allow the federal government to invest directly in failing banks was the most significant government intervention in financial markets in decades – and Mr. McCain voted for it along with Mr. Obama.

• McCain likens Obama to European socialists – International Herald Tribune – Annotated

  –and the excerpt below shows we should liken McCain, tax-wise, to George W. Bush.

  tags: elections08, economy, taxes

  • McCain wants to retain all of the tax cuts that Bush won from Congress in 2001 and later years, reductions that applied at every level of income. Obama favors retaining Bush-era cuts except on taxpayers making more than about $250,000, whose taxes would revert to higher levels in effect a few years ago.
    • Isn’t it clear that neither candidate will have the luxury of keeping taxes low in this meltdown, unless they do it at the expense of a greater debt and a greater burden on future generations? – post by cburell

• Obama, McCain aides rumble on Fox: The Swamp

  I’m really trying to be impartial here. Watch the video yourself and decide if I’m right: Every time Obama’s manager started to make a point, McCain manager Davis interrupted, talked over him, and never stopped. It’s a mirror of the way he’s run the campaign and debates: attack and re-direct whenever the other side tries to articulate a serious point. Davis is incredibly aggressive and obnoxious.

  tags: video, elections08

  • I say forget this week’s last presidential debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. Let’s instead schedule a cage fight between David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, and Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager.

• Media Matters – Wash. Post reported that McCain campaign manager warned of “rampant voter fraud,” but not that illegal votes are almost never cast

  Good parsing of a serious omission by a Washington Post journalist about ACORN and the bogus issue of “rampant voter fraud.”

  tags: elections08

  • In an October 18 Washington
    Post article,
    staff writers Robert Barnes and Mary Pat Flaherty quoted McCain campaign
    manager Rick Davis’ claim that reports of investigations into the
    Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) have suggested
    “rampant voter fraud as it relates to voter registration.” But in
    reporting Davis’
    remark, Barnes and
    Flaherty did not point out that actual instances of illegal votes cast as a
    result of registration fraud, e.g., using false names, are extremely rare.
    Indeed, following Sen. John McCain’s assertion during the October 15
    presidential debate
    that ACORN is “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest
    frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of
    democracy,” the Post‘s Alec MacGillis noted in a “Live
    Fact Check” of the debate: “[T]here is a difference between
    submitting bogus forms and actual voter fraud. It is not voter fraud until
    someone shows up at the polls pretending to be [Dallas Cowboys quarterback] Tony Romo or
    Mickey Mouse and tries to vote. And there is no evidence yet of a wholesale
    push to send people to the polls under bogus names.”

    Indeed, U.S. Department of
    Justice crime statistics cast doubt on the existence of widespread voter fraud.
    According to a report by the
    Justice Department’s Criminal Division on prosecutions between October 2002 and
    September 2005, the Justice Department charged 95 people with “election
    fraud” and convicted 55. Among those, however, just 17 individuals were
    convicted for casting fraudulent ballots;

• Is McCain ‘race-baiting’? – Los Angeles Times – Annotated

  Goldberg cites the examples, then tries to dismiss them. I’m not convinced. Emphasizing “Hussein” in speeches and rallies clearly tries to paint Obama not as an African-American, but as an ARAB. So it’s post-9/11 racism, in a subtle way.

  Regardless, it’s old news. Now they’re painting him as a “socialist” for saying he’d re-distribute the tax burden upwards from Bush’s policies. And that’s outrageous, in light of McCain’s own “socialist” plan to have the US government buy mortgages from insolvent homeowners.

  tags: elections08, racism, mccain

  • Still, I can’t help feeling that the examples this year are ambiguous. I’m not saying McCain is or isn’t a racist. How would I know what’s in his heart? But in a country whose racial history is as tragic and as raw as ours, these are serious charges that shouldn’t be thrown around lightly, the way Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) seemed to do last week when he irresponsibly compared McCain’s campaign to George Wallace’s.

    If people are going to make charges of racism, they should back them up.

    • Lewis was concerned about McCain/Palin’s tardiness in condemning the cries of “kill him” and “off with his head” and “traitor” at the M/P rallies.Defenders say McCain stood up against them a couple of times. But he did so only after several days, while we all watched them on YouTube.

      But McCain doesn’t know how to use the internet, by his own admission, and Palin can’t name anything she reads – so maybe neither of them were aware of it.

      Which brings us back to campaign manager Rick Davis, who surely should be monitoring the web for developments, and crafting timely responses to them. – post by cburell

• Presidential Race | McCain “robo calls” draw bipartisan fire | Seattle Times Newspaper – Annotated

  Again, McCain shows poor judgment in approving the dirty tactics Bush used against him.

  tags: elections08, mccain, politics

  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, made separate appeals to McCain on Friday. Collins faces a tough race for re-election and serves as a co-chairwoman of his Maine campaign.

    “These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics,” Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley said. “Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately.”

    Voters in at least 10 closely contested states are receiving hundreds of thousands of the automated, or “robo,” calls — uniformly negative and sometimes misleading.

    McCain has belittled such calls in the past: In the 2000 primaries, he was a target of misleading calls that included innuendo about his family, and blamed them in part for his loss to George W. Bush. In January, McCain described those calls as “scurrilous stuff.”

    • The Republican candidates asking him to stop are probably worried they’ll be tarnished by what their party leader is doing, and lose to their own opponents as a result. – post by cburell

• Who is an elitist? – Salt Lake Tribune

  Great point about the rhetoric of the campaign. Speech and debate (and rhetoric) teachers take note.

  tags: rhetoric, elections08, mccain

  • I was listening to talk radio the other day. Some of the conservative hosts were referring to Sen. Barack Obama by his full given name Barack Hussein Obama, an obvious attempt to frighten voters. As Sen. John McCain continues to fall in the polls, conservatives are getting desperate.

    Why not refer to McCain in the same way? John Sydney McCain III – so rich he doesn’t know if he has seven or eight houses or 13 or 14 vehicles!

    Those on the right have a lot of guts calling Obama an elitist.

• What Went Wrong with the McCain Campaign

  I see it the same way: selling his soul to Bush campaigner Rick Davis, and allowing him to run the same dirty campaigns he did with Bush.

  McCain allowed it, so we have to chalk it up to his leadership. He could have “just said no” to all of this negativity. When he started losing, he didn’t.

  tags: elections08, mccain

  • What Time doesn’t state is the obvious: that an African American candidate, with the name Barack Hussein Obama, started off the campaign with huge negatives piled up against him and for which he must compensate every day. So the real question that needs to be asked is this: Why is someone with all the advantages of white privilege trailing so badly against someone who has had the deck stacked against him from the get-go?

    Let me answer the question in two words: Rick Davis.

    Davis, of course, is John McCain’s campaign manager, and while Davis is never once mentioned by Scherer, Davis has, in fact, orchestrated every bad decision made by McCain during the final, critical months of the campaign.

    Let’s take a look at four of them:

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

1. My “Critically Reading Current Events” Blogging Homework 10/22/2008
2. Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/24/2008
3. Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/29/2008
4. Politics and Culture Reads around the Web 10/27/2008

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