What about George?

So you might be asking yourself what our current Commander in Chief, who will be replaced by one of these two (God-willing Obama) on January 20, 2009, has been up to today.

Apparently… absolutely nothing… which isn’t really a difference between any other time if you really think about it.

With no public appearances scheduled and no face time with McCain or any other republican across the country, Bush is planning to spend his evening in the White House residence, watching TV coverage of election results and hosting a small dinner with Laura, who is celebrating her birthday today.

How devastating to Bush is it that he has NO appearances scheduled for today with any candidates?Usually a sitting president, even a lame-duck, has coveted slots open to push their party’s candidates across the candidate, but it seems Bush doesn’t have any of those…

That’s gotta hoit.

VOTE

It's Noon... did YOU vote?

If so, great! Thank's for doing your civic duty.


If not, what the hell are you waiting for, sitting at a desk reading blogs? Get the hell out there and VOTE...

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

And remember...

GOTV

“And as long as America must choose, that long will there be a need and a place for the Democratic Party. We Democrats can run on our record but we cannot rest on it. We will win if we continue to take the initiative and if we carry the message of hope and action throughout the country. Alexander Smith once said, 'A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.' Let us continue to plant, and our children shall reap the harvest. That is our destiny as Democrats.”

- Robert F. Kennedy

VOTE

Seriously?

Our advice for tonight is to buy your alcohol now if you live in any of the following 7 states as you can't do it tomorrow because it's Election Day.

No... I'm not kidding.

If you live in Kentucky, Indiana and South Carolina, you can’t buy alcohol tomorrow AT ALL so buy it today to celebrate or drown your sorrows.

If you live in Utah and West Virginia, you can buy alcohol at restaurants and bars only.

If you live in Alaska or Massachusetts, you can’t buy Election Day alcohol unless your local governments are authorized to provide an exemption from the ban.

The 18th century called, they want their laws back…

Just in case

It’s almost over… the fat lady is getting ready to sing… calls have been made… homes have been visited… hands have been shaken… babies have been kissed.

All that’s left now is the actual voting.

And on that note, should you see something weird, discomfiting, out-of-the-ordinary or downright illegal going on at your polling place tomorrow, report it.

First you could contact Obama Voter Protection at 1-877-US-4-OBAMA (1-877-874-6226) and tell them what problems you’re witnessing.

If you can’t get through, you can submit an online form or call your local Obama campaign headquarters.

Additionally, or alternately, you can call the fine folks at Election Protection, a nonpartisan organization, at 866-OUR-VOTE.

And since this is the 21st century, you could also report problems to Election Protection’s state teams through Twitter, using these guidelines.

If that weren’t enough, you can track incident reports received through the hotline at OurVoteLive.org while keeping an eye on voting issues as they are reported at the OurVoteLive Blog while following breaking voting news and issues at the 866OurVote Twitter account…

Oh, and by the way...

VOTE

Think McCain knows what could lie ahead?

Has anyone else looked at Sen. McCain's plans for election night?

They don't look like plans for someone planning a celebration but rather like plans for someone planning to slink away to lick their wounds.

Don't get me wrong... I continue to urge everyone to continue the fight... the last thing I want is for us to get complacent and get beat in a few weeks.

Having said that, I still think something's amiss here... but don't take my word for it (as awesome as my words are) but judge for yourself...

Via AP;

John McCain's election night watch party might be missing John McCain.

Instead of appearing before a throng of supporters at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix on the evening of Nov. 4, the Republican presidential nominee plans to deliver postelection remarks to a small group of reporters and guests on the hotel's lawn. Aides said Thursday that the arrangement was due to space limitations and that McCain might drop by the election watch party at some other point.

Space limitations? Seriously? If space is truly limited, wouldn't it make more sense to un-invite one or two, I don't know... journalists and NOT make the guest of honor, you know – the candidate himself – remove himself from the list of attendees all because of space limitations?

More from AP;

McCain's remarks will be piped electronically into the party and media filing center, aides said. Only a small press "pool" — mostly those who have traveled regularly with the candidate on his campaign plane, plus a few local Arizona reporters and others — will be physically present when he speaks.

Thomas Patterson, a government professor at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, called the arrangement "unusual" but said the campaign may simply be bowing to the reality that the candidate's remarks are geared toward the televised audience rather than those in the hall.

Hmmm… there just has to be another explanation for such an inane choice.

Again, this is just me, but I don’t think his actions seem apropos for someone planning to celebrate a hard-fought victory or a hard-fought loss. In fact it seems to have the feel of something being thrown together by a person that’s ready for the game to be over with so they could hibernate for a few weeks while thinking of what COULD have been.

It’s almost sad…especially when you consider the opposite as Sen. Obama has plans to address a giant outdoor celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park on Election Night… win or lose.

Again, I’m not calling for complacency or smugness as I more than understand that this race isn’t done until all the votes have been cast and counted… but you have to admit it’s strange.

And… a little enjoyable.

Better late than never: My Thoughts on the Powell Endorsement

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Obama for president this past Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ (read Scott’s post HERE)… and while I know I’m a bit behind on writing about this, understand that it took me a few days to fully understand just how big this endorsement is… for it’s not solely an endorsement of Obama, but also an admonishing of the gop as a whole.

Naturally, the republican wonk (perhaps wanker is more apropos) machine decided to immediately criticize Powell for standing up to for convictions, NOT following the lemmings over the cliff, and putting country, and not party, first.

Sen. McCain could learn a lot from Mr. Powell.

And while I applaud Mr. Powell for doing just that, one has to question if this endorsement does more good for Obama… or if it’s worse for McCain and, in essence, the entire republican party.

I think it’s the latter.

There’s no question the endorsement was a huge boost for the Obama campaign, but keep in mind that there are some Liberals and Independents (a group each side is counting on to propel them to victory) who are pissed at Powell for dragging us into an unjust war.

When thinking about that though, one also has to wonder just how much Powell was lied to by the other members of the Bush(whacked) Administration, specifically Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al.

It’s because of that that I am not one of those people that are pissed at Powell as I believe he was put into an un-envying position. Hell, I’ve liked Colin Powell since I first became aware of him during the first Gulf War, following his career and thinking that one day HE would be the one running for president… unfortunately his career took a divergent and utterly destructive path in the form of accepting the offer from George W. Bush to become his SOS and since his resignation he’s been on what I call a ‘search for atonement.’

(Don’t ask about his support of Ted Stevens (r-AK) in his corruption trial as that one still boggles my mind… but I’m getting off track…)

Powell furthered that ‘search for atonement’ Sunday, not just because he endorsed Obama but he also systematically dismantled the foundation of the McPalin campaign while still labeling himself a republican.

That’s why I think the endorsement is an indictment of the gop more than anything else. And although McCain would never say it publically, this has to hurt… for no other reason than Powell maintains he’s a republican and yet can’t bring himself to endorse his party’s candidate.

Now is not the time to be discussing a place for Powell in an Obama cabinet… after all, that’s for people much smarter than I to decide. Now is the time to listen to what Powell said Sunday and has continued to say since; McCain is not running a clean campaign… Palin is not experienced enough to be VP… McCain’s judgment is not to be trusted.

Keep that in mind when you head to the polls in the days ahead… and perhaps on November 5th our nation will wake up with a new direction slated to being on January 20th of 2009.

Apparently Hell HAS frozen over…

Quick, someone look outside to see if there are pigs flying… regardless if they’re wearing lipstick or not.

For the first time in its history, the Chicago Tribune has endorsed a Democrat for president of the United States.

From the paper;

On Nov. 4 we're going to elect a president to lead us through a perilous time and restore in us a common sense of national purpose. […]

The strongest candidate to do that is Sen. Barack Obama. The Tribune is proud to endorse him today for president of the United States. […]

We can provide some assurance. We have known Obama since he entered politics a dozen years ago. We have watched him, worked with him, argued with him as he rose from an effective state senator to an inspiring U.S. senator to the Democratic Party's nominee for president. […]

We have tremendous confidence in his intellectual rigor, his moral compass and his ability to make sound, thoughtful, careful decisions. He is ready.

I don’t put much stock into newspaper endorsements, but even still, this is huge.

The Tribune has been in circulation for decades (since 1847) and not once… not once… has it ever endorsed a Democrat.

Until now…

Until Obama…

McCain's economic plan: older than McCain himself

The McCain campaign, depending on which McCain campaign person you ask may or may not be poised to announce his economic plan today, and if the details that have been leaked are true, there’s little ‘new’ stuff in it.

McCain campaign manager Denis Holtz-Eakin said McCain's proposal is “targeted at people who have been hurt by the recent financial crisis — seniors, savers, workers, people who are trying to get to college.”

Really? McCain wants to help people in the middle-class, I’m skeptical, but I’m listening… what are the proposals?

“…a 50 per cent reduction in the capital gains tax on stock profits, from the current 15 per cent to 7.5 per cent, for a period of two years, at an estimated cost of $10 billion; an acceleration in the tax write-off for stock losses, allowing Americans to deduct $15,000 in losses a year for the tax years 2008 and 2009.”

A 50% reduction in… in capital gains… really? That’s McCain’s big economic plan, reducing capital gains… this plan isn't new… in fact it’s almost as old as McCain.

And I don’t mean to nitpick but what capital gains are McCain speaking of? Before you can get capital gains don’t you have to have, you know, capital? And with the markets down 30% and more over the past year, the only people to recoup capital gains taxes would be those that have been holding large blocks of stock for years and... ohhh now I get it.

This is one of the oldest tricks in the republican playbook: cynically manipulate a crisis to push through the most radical of measures.

According to the Wonk Room’s James Kvaal, the impact of cutting capital gains would look like this; “Households earning less than $50,000 a year collected a mere 2.5 percent of capital gains in 2005, according to the Tax Policy Center. Families earning more than $1 million a year collected 59 percent of capital gains. Moreover, most middle-class families with capital gains hold their investments in retirement accounts shielded against capital gains taxes.”

For someone that’s already promising massive tax cuts for corporations and a staggering $4 billion in tax cuts for for oil companies, handing out a new tax cut for millionaires and calling it a “Pension And Family Security” with the beard of helping people that are “hurting the most” is insulting to everyone with a brain.

And how will McCain pay for these tax cuts? One would think a presidential candidate would be able to tell the voters how he would pay for something this massive (as Obama did yesterday with his economic plan), but the McCain campaign apparently doesn’t.

At the least spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer is stumped about how much those new tax cuts would cost and how McCain plan to pay for them, saying; “Obviously…it’s going to cost some amount of money,”

Well DUHHHHHHH… thanks for that brilliant insight Nancy… to get that kind of insight usually you need to slide a quarter into some kind of slot and wait for a mechanical fortune teller to tell you what your future holds.

I can see clearly that a future with a McPalin administration would be a disaster on epic proportions, not unlike the last eight years with commander cuckoo-bananas in charge.

The Only possiBle candidAte to vote for is pretty daMn clear if you Ask me… and Because of thIs, we neeD to gEt out and vote on ElectioN Day…

UPDATE: Apparently some of McCain’s advisers are unsure if McCain was scheduled to unveil his economic plan today. If people within his own campaign don’t know what the hell the campaign is doing, how the hell would the country look after four years of him?

McCain camp whines some more...

Sen. Obama was in Wisconsin today where he gave a speech in which he said; “Let me lay this out, because I want everybody to know the differences between myself and Senator McCain in this campaign.”

That was the one and only time in the entire speech that Obama mentioned McCain… so what does the McCain camp do?They release a press release that whines reads; “As Americans teeter on the edge of economic crisis, Barack Obama continued attacking John McCain today...”

‘Attacking John McCain’?? Really?

Now... my reaction to this is the same reaction that the Obama campaign evidently had when they sent out this press release; “Given the fact that Barack Obama did not attack John McCain today, it is a telling admission that the McCain campaign saw Barack Obama’s attack on eight years of greed and irresponsibility in Washington as a personal attack on John McCain. We’ll leave it up to the McCain campaign to explain why they get so offended and defensive when George Bush’s record is attacked.”

For someone who’s been trying awfully hard to distance himself from the current CIC, the McCain campaign’s whining about one sentence in a speech does a nifty job of tying the two together again.

So we WILL leave it up to the McCain campaign to explain why they get offended when Obama rightfully attacks “President” Bush’s record.

Though I will NOT be holding my breath.

James Carville needs to STFU… NOW!

Are you kidding me???

James Carville on CNN; “And John McCain, deep down inside my heart, you know, as you know, I've said before I admire McCain. I don't believe he knew about it. I hope somebody asked him. But I refuse to believe that John McCain agreed to airing this spot. I know he says I'm John McCain, I paid for it but they have that in the can and they do it. It I don't think he knew about it. I really don't.

So let me get this straight… the McCain camp runs an attack ad aimed at Sen. Obama that essentially says he supports pedophiles and “Democratic Consultant” Carville lets McCain off the hook??? Give. Me. A break.

Carville wasn’t done fellating McCain though, he continued, “… I mean, my point is, I really don't think that senator McCain knows about this ad, and in my heart of hearts, I want to believe he's an absolutely furious about this and somebody's being called on the carpet because this ad is blatantly completely false.”

You really think that McCain doesn’t know what his campaign is doing??? That tells me one of three four things.

1. McCain is SO detached from his own campaign that he doesn’t know what’s going on behind the scenes… just the trait one wants in their president.

2. McCain is a senile old coot that barely knows what planet he’s on at any given time.

3. Carville is an idiot who is still smarting from Sen. Clinton’s loss so much that he’s joined his wife in hoping the republicans win in November so Ms. Clinton can take another shot at the Oval Office in 2012… in which case, Carville needs to shut the fuck up and take his creepy face elsewhere.

4. All of the Above

Scott’s 2-cents, which I happen to agree with:

With less than 8 weeks to go until Election Day, now is not the time for Carville to make all nice and spread sunshine… he needs to attack.

In the past, Carville has proven himself to be an effective campaign strategist and he knows better than anyone else that just because your favorite player isn't in the game doesn’t mean that you change the game plan.

It’s now the time to pick up the playbook and get back in the game… if not, then he needs to sit this one out, STFU and let someone else help coach the Dems to victory in November.

Who said what now?

I mentioned in this morning’s ‘Daily’ that the McCain campaign is agog over the “lipstick on a pig” (henceforth known here as PiglipstickGate) thing for nothing… and I’m not the only one as former republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appeared on Fox “News” and defended Obama’s use of the term (check Hell to make sure it hasn’t frozen over).

Now we have someone else take the McCain campaign to task…not only for over-bloviating the “pig lipstick” comment but also for dumbing down the presidential campaign as a whole.

It was Meghan McCain.

...

Yes, THAT Meghan McCain… the one who said earlier this week that her family knows “more about war than anyone on the planet” appeared on Fox “News” today and defended Obama, saying; “I've heard my dad say that, the term 'lipstick on a pig.”

She wasn’t done as she goes on to make another solid point about the McCain camp’s overwrought reaction, saying; “I don't like anyone being referred to as a pig in any context. […] I think there's a lot more educated conversations we can have about the ticket than just saying these remarks like that.”

Wait a moment… let me read that again… ‘don’t like anyone’… uh-huh… ‘lot more educated conversations’...

Wow… If I’m reading this right, and I like to think I am, she just said that her father is running a petty and inane campaign.

Sure, she’s not defending Obama per se (she hasn’t gone totally smokeless), but she IS slamming her own father’s campaign.

This campaign just got keeps getting more and more interesting. Stay tuned...

"To the backlash mobile!" Part 2

"If it were your decision, and you were putting your country first, would you put an untested small-town mayor a heartbeat away from the presidency?" - National Review's David Frum

(Ouch... and that's from a conservative... well, I bet other conservatives are happy with the choice... right... RIGHT??? Helloooooooo, anyone there???)

To the backlash mobile!

While I had resolved myself to not speak about Sen. McCain’s VP choice of Sarah Quayle Palin… the conservative backlash succeeding her selection is something I can NOT pass up.

Keep this in mind… she was the mayor of a small town in Alaska, population 6,500, a mere 20 months ago… and that town’s largest concern was if they would have enough snow on the ground for the Iditarod. But in 1984 she was runner-up in the Ms. Alaska beauty pageant… so she has that going for her. And now… now she’s been tapped to be a heartbeat away from the presidency… and with McCain’s age (by the way. Happy Birthday today Senator), that could very well come into play.

But I’m getting off-topic… back to the real point of this post; conservative backlash.

HT to Daily Kos …

Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review; “She Just Is Not Ready to Be Commander-in-Chief [said] Pat Buchanan on MSNBC just now, about Sarah Palin. I'm liable to agree.”

Lopez wasn’t done as she shared this email she received; “As much as I loathe Obama-Biden, I can't in good conscience vote for a McCain-Palin ticket. Palin has absolutely no experience in foreign affairs. Considering both McCain's advanced age and the state of the world today, it is essential that the veep be exceedingly qualified to assume the office of president. I simply don't have any confidence in Palin's ability to deal effectively with Iran, Russia, China, etc. I certainly will not cast a vote for Obama-Biden, but nor will I vote for McCain-Palin. Looks like I'll either sit this one out or vote for Bob Barr. Why, o, why, didn't McCain listen to Rove and just pick Romney?”

(Because trying to use the label of elitist towards Obama wouldn’t work when the presidential and vice presidential candidate own over 11 homes between them… I’m just sayin’)

Steven Chapman calls her selection “inexcusable” and says; “But worse, this decision mocks McCain's seriousness on the issues that are supposed to be his strength. It tells us that he puts his own political fortunes above the safety of the nation.”

(Yup… welcome to the self evident point we knew months years ago Steve. McCain is a pandering flip-flopper…)

Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune; “Yet, as McCain often has joked, one of the few requirements for the vice presidency is looking after the health of the president on a daily basis. So, should Palin find no breath on the mirror held under McCain's nose some day, is she ready to be president? […] On the question of national security, the McCain campaign has offered Palin's control of the Alaska National Guard. Really?”

(She controls the National Guard so she’s qualified to handle national security… seriously? That’s that the campaign is going to say? That’s about as stupid a comment as Fox “News” host Steve Doocy’s rationale of her being good at international relations because she’s “right up there in Alaska right next door to Russia.”)

Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review; “Inexperience. Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain’s decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain's age raised the stakes on this issue. […] As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Conservatives are pointing out that it is tricky for the Obama campaign to raise the issue of her inexperience given his own, and note that the presidency matters more than the vice-presidency. But that gets things backward. To the extent the experience, qualifications, and national-security arguments are taken off the table, Obama wins. [..] And it’s not just foreign policy. Palin has no experience dealing with national domestic issues, either. (On the other hand, as Kate O’Beirne just told me, we know that Palin will be ready for that 3 a.m. phone call: She’ll already be up with her baby.)

(Her selection does eliminate, partially, McCain’s argument about Obama being inexperienced. And the line about her already being up at 3 AM is perfectly snarky…)

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough; “It Sounds Like a Harriet Miers Decision. Let's Find a Woman, Whether She's Experienced or Not.”

(Ouch)

Erstwhile conservative tool and blowhard Pat Buchanan; “(Picking Palin is the) biggest political gamble I think in American political history.”

(this is starting to scare me... first Pat says that Obama's speech was the "greatest convention speech ever" and now he's unsure about McCain's running mate... do we need to call Hell to see if it's frozen over?)

Town Hall's Ron Fournier; “If Obama is an empty suit, as McCain has suggested, is Palin suited for the Oval Office herself? […] She is younger and less experienced than the first-term Illinois senator, and brings an ethical shadow to the ticket.”

(Or an empty pantsuit if you want to get technical)

You say you want Liberal reaction, here ya go…

Rep. Rahm Emmanuel; “Is this really who the Republican Party wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency? Given Sarah Palin's lack of experience on every front and on nearly every issue, this Vice Presidential pick doesn't show judgment: it shows political panic.”

(Yup…)

Sen. Chuck Schumer; “After the great success of the Democratic convention, the choice of Sarah Palin is surely a Hail Mary pass. It is a real roll of the dice and shows how John McCain, Karl Rove et al realize what a strong position the Obama-Biden team and Democrats in general are in in this election. Certainly the choice of Palin puts to rest any argument about inexperience on the Democratic team and while Palin is a fine person, her lack of experience makes the thought of her assuming the presidency troubling. I particularly look forward to the Biden-Palin debate in Missouri.”

(you ain’t the only one Mr. Schumer…)

Obama Campaign Spokesman Bill Burton; “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same.”

Fasten your seatbelts people…the ride has just begun.

Another miss

So… the latest McCain ad takes shots at Sen. Obama for not visiting troops on his recent Euro Trip.

And to get that point across the ad shows footage of Obama… visiting troops.

Um… I think you’re doing it wrong.

Didn’t I already write about this today?

No, it just seems as though I did… but when you’re dealing with Sen. McCain, things likes this seem to come quick and steady.

Which segues nicely into Viagra as a political tidbit…

It all started when one of McCain’s potential VP picks, Carly Fiorina, was spinning for McCain when she said; “I've been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won't cover birth control medication. Those women would like a choice.”

Naturally, as reporters do, someone asked McCain about Ms. Fiorina’s quote and responded; “I certainly don't want to discuss that issue.”

Apparently thinking the same thing I was – aren’t you supposed to be Mr. Straight Talker? – the reporter pressed the question and went further, reminding McCain that he voted against coverage of birth control and asking if that was still his position…

Mr. Straighttalker didn’t like that as there was a pause so long that another ice age would have started were it not for Global Warming.

After the longest pause ever recorded in national politics, McCain answered; “I don't recall that vote right now, but I'll be glad to take a look at it and get back to you.”

The reporter wasn’t buying it and pressed further on by reiterating what Ms. Fiorina had said, that, essentially, it was unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control… the reporter than asked McCain; “Do you have an opinion on that?”

Then came the squirming… you could see in McCain’s eyes that he was hoping a hole would swallow him, or better yet, the reporter…

It wasn’t to be… so after a pause that broke the record for the previously longest pause in national politics, set only seconds earlier, McCain answered with a non-committal, un-informed response; “I don't know enough about it to give you an informed answer…”

Wow…was that a great thing to see…

The vote was a mere five years ago… so if he’s forgotten what his stance was, it points to, as Kos himself says; “age-induced mental deficiencies.”

Perhaps McCain voted against the bill for other, possibly valid, reasons… but the fact that he can’t form an opinion on whether it’s fair or not to cover giving men erections but NOT unwanted pregnancies, is mind-boggling and feeds into another of my thoughts about McCain’s candidacy.


You know I’ve said (more specifically Scott gave me the line and told me to run with it) many, many times this week; “the more often Sen. McCain opens his mouth, the better… as it gives a chance for people to see what he is really all about”… but one also has to see the plethora of mis-cues, gaffes, etc from McCain this week and wonder aloud the same thing I wonder; I don’t think he’s physically or mentally up to the job of being president…

Keep that in mind now, tomorrow, and every day until November 4th…

Does he EVER know what he's talking about?

In what is turning out to be a monthly weekly daily entry in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. McCain has once again shown his perspicacity of saying the wrong thing and/or sticking his foot into his mouth…

Not surprisingly, he’s done it again. This time it involved Sen. Obama, Iran, and Senate voting.

McCain’s campaign released a statement earlier this week that criticized Obama’s positions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and their test firing of missiles.

McCain wrote; “This is the same organization that I voted to condemn as a terrorist organization when an amendment was on the floor of the United States Senate. Senator Obama refused to vote.”

No you didn’t John. While Obama was campaigning in New Hampshire, you were doing the same in New York… so you also missed the vote on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment …

Oops.

Yes, Obama missed that vote, but he did sponsor a March 2007 amendment that would have designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Unfortunately, Obama’s legislation never had a vote in the Senate because, naturally, republicans stalled it because only THEY can legislate terrorists.

Granted, the McCain camp admitted the error and tried to divert attention away from yet ANOTHER gaffe by their candidate by expressing McCain’s tough stance against Iran while tying McCain’s commitment to hating Iran with Bush and his (much-ridiculed) “Axis of Evil” mumbo-jumbo.
Has Mark “I can kill a campaign in 2 easy steps” Penn gone to work at the McCain campaign? How else can you explain the flip-flopping, topsy-turvy way they’ve been doing things lately?

Their candidate continues to stick his foot in his mouth and yet they don’t step in and try to alleviate the fallout…

They then try to distance themselves from the ever-unpopular Bush only to, seconds later, embrace Bush and his Bushy ways…

And no strategy is working for them… as evidenced by McCain’s trip to an auto-parts supplier yesterday in a Detroit suburb that has been hit hard by the bad economy.

McCain entered the store while trying to express sympathy for those affected by the state’s economic depression, only to have his message fall flat while it “landed with a thud, as workers sat in stony silence.”

The Good Ship Flip-Flop is reeling… and it’s gonna take a LOT to right it…

I don't want to say I told you so... BUT

As I sit here wondering how the hell Karl Rove can ignore a subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary Committee so he can discuss how he politicized the Justice Department… something came across my computer that further supports my post from yesterday: “the more often Sen. McCain opens his mouth, the better… as it gives a chance for people to see what he is really all about.”

Today, he showed his folly by responding to a question about Iran… or more specifically, the threat that Iran is towards the US.

McCain constantly spouts off about Iran and how they are “intent on acquiring nuclear weapons” while attacking Sen. Obama and Democrats in general, for supposedly not seeing the real threat posed by a nuclear Iran.

And following Iran’s missile testing earlier this week, McCain was at it again. Though this time, he was challenged on it by ABC’s Charlie Gibson, who interviewed McCain and asked if an Israeli strike against Iran would be “jusified” in light of their missile tests… McCain’s response; “I can’t know whether a strike would be justified because I don’t know the progress or the significance or the nature of the threat. I know the threat is growing because of the continued development of nuclear weapons.

Excuse me??? You say Iran is a threat… and yet you don’t even know what the nature of the threat is and then you try to trot out the ‘development of nuclear weapons’ fear-mongering again? I believe we have hard evidence and data from US intelligence agencies (NIE anyone?) that says they’re no longer developing nuclear weapons…

But since he claims to know what Iran is up to, perhaps the reason he isn’t sure of the nature of the threat is because he hasn’t had time to make it up yet.

Look, we all know that McCain has not done his research on many things… but the region containing Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan is the region that will command the next administration’s attention 99% of the time… and yet, he doesn’t know what their real threat is.

The more often McCain opens his mouth, the better…

I was right, he IS senile

Before you flame me a new one, allow me to explain why I think he’s senile… I mean, how else could you explain Sen. McCain touching the third rail and letting his tongue slip again; “Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed.”

So in other words Mr. McCain, you’re saying that the way social security has worked since the 1930’s is a disgrace…

Shame on you. Social Security is arguably the most successful program ever delivered by the federal government and has run exactly the way it was designed and has done so for over fifty years.

But it’s a disgrace…

If McCain isn’t senile, then he needs to stop talking as it seems every time he opens his mouth these days he seems to be expressing either ignorance of something (economics or gas prices) or anger (towards a veteran who questioned his allegiance to veterans)

disdain (or an impatient combination, as when he got lippy with questioners who discovered he didn't know the price of gas).

And it should prove interesting to see how McCain's abhorrence of Social Security--and his plan to "fix" it (or eliminate it?)--plays with one of the few demographics he dominates: senior citizens, most of whose lives are undoubtedly eased by this absolutely disgraceful program.

Like McCain, “President” Bush wanted to “fix” social security, and by “fix” I mean “allow Wall Street to loot” way back after the 2004 election.

Come to think of it, his attempt of fixing social security was where his downfall started… his hubris was thrown into glaring relief by his statement that the '04 election proved he had a bunch of “political capital” and that he was going to spend it to advance his agenda with the first thing he tried to spend it on being Social Security.

Fail.

Epic fail.

Social Security isn’t a get something for free program… the retirees receiving the benefits now paid into the trust fund by working themselves… it’s not that hard of a concept to grasp.

Think more about what he said; essentially he said that the retirees of old were funded by the current set of retirees but now it's a disgrace that the current set is getting the benefit that they helped fund.

This isn't a fucking pyramid scheme Mr. McCain.

By his logic (a term I use loosely) the fact that the money HE pays for insurance is used to pay other people’s covered expenses is also a disgrace…

The money HE pays in taxes (assuming he and his wife do) which is then used to pay for infrastructure work in places that he will most likely never visit is a disgrace…

The fact that the money HE puts into a savings account is then used to give loans to other people is a disgrace…

Because in my mind, Social Security is similar to those three things.

The more often McCain opens his mouth, the better as it gives a chance for people to see what he is really all about… if I were at the DNC, I would be on the phone to every single AARP member I had in my rolodex and inform them of what he said while waiting for the chips to fall.

The clock is ticking…

Following Sen. Barack Obama's ascension to the needed number of delegates to ensure the Democratic nomination, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA), Democratic Governors Association Chairman Joe Manchin and DNC Chairman Howard Dean have issued a statement;

"We have come to the end of an exciting primary and caucus process - the voters have spoken. As the Democratic leaders of the Senate, House of Representatives, the Governors and the Democratic National Committee we commend all of the participants of the 2008 primary process, especially Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, for making this such a transformational election.

Because of the enthusiasm our candidates have inspired, our party has brought record numbers of voters to the polls, gained millions of newly registered Democrats and now has advantages in states many thought were difficult to win. We are grateful to the millions of Independents and Republicans who have crossed over to vote for a Democratic candidate for president.

Democrats must now turn our full attention to the general election. To that end, we are urging all remaining uncommitted super delegates to make their decisions known by Friday of this week so that our party can stand united and begin our march toward reversing the eight years of failed Bush/McCain policies that have weakened our country.

We once again congratulate all of the candidates for their leadership and dedication to providing this country with a new direction. We look forward to working with them and with all Democrats to win the White House, congressional seats and state capitals so we can deliver the change the American people deserve and demand.”

There you have it… if you’re a super-delegate, you have until Friday.

Otherwise the DNC will be sending Vito and Bruno over to ‘help’ you make your decision…