LIVING OUTSIDE THE NARROW AMERICA

Sarah Palin remarked that she loved visiting the "pro-America" parts of the country, and maybe the McCain camp will clarify her statement, but probably not. They're too busy putting out fires--and starting them--as they continue to "go negative" in the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

With her statement, Palin implied that many of us live in an "anti-American" America, which is ludicrous, but maybe not to Palin. If by "pro-America," she means supporting her red-baiting, robo-calling, swift-boating, racially-overtoned, slanderous, Karl Rove-directed campaign, she might be right. In that case, her narrowly defined America--let's call it Narrow America--is rapidly shrinking and I'm not surprised she's sounding so desperate and shrill.

If by being "pro-America" she means shouting "Kill him!" when Obama's name is mentioned, or agreeing that Obama's tax plan is dangerous socialism, and that he "pals around with terrorists," then I live outside that Narrow America.

To Palin and Company, it seems that "pro-America" means anti-science, anti-feminist, anti-minority, anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-environment, and anti-intellectual.

If by "pro-America" she means waving a McCain placard, then most of the country wouldn't qualify. Obama is making serious inroads in the red states. The McCain camp is losing and feeling desperate, and if "pro-America" means running a campaign based on scare tactics and bald-faced lies, thank goodness we're not in that Narrow America.


If by "pro-America" she means supporting corporate profits over people, deregulation over consumer safety, racism over tolerance, superstition over science, and war over peace, I'm glad I don't live in Palin's Narrow America.

Outside Sarah Palin's narrowly-defined America, honesty is still important, and winning isn't the only thing, but winning fair and square. It may sound corny and naive, but throwing sand in your opponent's eyes isn't okay where I live. Outside Palin's Narrow America, the Constitution still carries some weight, and so does the Geneva Convention, even though they've both taken a beating these past eight years.

Vote.

HILLARY, HERE'S YOUR HAT

Hillary Clinton conceded, finally. She took her own sweet time, but she's out now, right? Why does she look like she's still running for something? Maybe I shouldn't worry. Hillary is throwing her total support behind Barack Obama, and the party is finally united...right?

Wrong. Hillary deserves something, her fans say. She got eighteen million votes and she deserves to be Vice President, or get a cabinet position -- some kind of consolation prize, at least -- or they won't play ball. She lost, you say! She shouldn't be calling the shots!

Obama is in a bind. Some of these sore losers say they'll skip the election entirely if Hillary isn't included. That's dumb and dumber. Does he really need their support? Remember what this is all about. The real fight is against McCain and the status quo of the greedy, lying Bushies. Defeat the war machine in November. Give us a change we can believe in. Go, Obama!

What went wrong with Hillary's campaign? Read an article from Huff-Po HERE.

OBAMA WINS NOMINATION

A moment that will define a generation.

Finally!

Michelle Obama gives Barack a pound. I love this clip.


Breaking News: CNN announces Barrack Obama winning the nomination. Obama gave a rousing speech, and magnanimously praised his rivals, particularly Hillary Clinton. (For her part, Hillary still hasn't dropped out of the race or made a concession speech).

Now it's on to beat McCain and the disastrous policies of George W. Bush!

75,000 TURN OUT FOR OBAMA IN OREGON!

Yesterday, over 75,000 people jammed Tom McCall's Waterfront Park in Portland to support Barrack Obama. This was his largest rally of the campaign, and a record turnout for my home state of Oregon.
The Obama momentum is obvious. Finally, we're moving beyond squabbling within the Democratic party, and we're preparing to battle Republican John McCain -- and the bankrupt policies of George W. Bush. It's about time.

Obama in Portland

Tuesday is the Oregon primary. Hey ho, let's go!

HILLARY AGONISTES

Barrack Obama found himself on the defensive in his debate with Hillary Clinton Wednesday night. She hammered away at his lack of experience, his patriotism, his lack of a flag lapel pin, his remarks about the bitterness of small town America, and his association with bomb-throwing 1960s radicals, the Weathermen.

For his part, Obama didn't get down and dirty. He defended himself, but didn't aggressively attack Hillary. He acted like an adult. It can be argued that this wasn't his strongest debate, but it's hard to tell how it played in the heartland.

For her part, Hillary pandered to gun nuts and churchgoers, something politicians have always done. If this is an example of the "change" she is promising, I'm not convinced. In both style and content, it sounds like more of the same.

Here is an interesting column from the Chicago Sun-Times about Hillary's use of polarizing politics.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/894548,CST-NWS-mitch15.article

CAMPAIGN WATCH

"Clinton Portrays Herself as a Pro-Gun Churchgoer"

The headline from the New York Times Political Blog shows Hillary taking aim at Obama. Candidates are supposed to be somewhat chameleon-like, the but one hopes there is a continuous core self beneath the changing colors and not just raw ambition and a desire for power. Something like integrity.

"[Hillary] described herself as a pro-gun churchgoer, recalling that her father taught her how to shoot a gun when she was a young girl and said that her faith “is the faith of my parents and my grandparents.”

Hillary has grown into this latest version during the furor over Barack Obama's recent remarks about the bitterness of some small town folks and their guns-- remarks he conceded were ill-chosen. Hillary saw an opportunity, and she pounced. She pandered, and tried to out-American him.

"For the third time since Mr. Obama’s remarks were made public Friday night, Mrs. Clinton criticized him at length, saying his comments seemed 'kind of elitist and out of touch.'

From ABC News, Hillary continues:

"'My faith is the faith of my parents and my grandparents,' she said. 'It's a fundamental expression of who we are and what we believe in most profoundly and I disagree with Sen. Obama's assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about immigration and trade simply out of frustration.'

"Clinton will spend the day in Pennsylvania on Sunday and will likely be repeating her message about Obama’s comments from San Francisco."

What are the incendiary remarks that got Hillary and McCain so fired up? Here's the quote from Obama that started things off:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Sounds plausible to me.

PUNCH & JUDY ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

First off, any Democrat would make a better president than George W. Bush, but that's not saying much. A shoehorn would make a better president. A shoehorn wouldn't lie to us, drag us into war, bankrupt us, whittle away our civil liberties, award no-contest contracts to friends, and continually dick us over while wearing a smug arrogant smirk.

Bush is the worst president I can remember, and that includes Republican crook "Tricky Dick" Nixon. If the Democrats can't win this time, they should cash in their chips and permanently retire to Loserville.

That being said, I'm ticked off with the Hillary camp. We received a group email from a Hillary supporter yesterday filled with the same old talking points warning us against smooth-talking, hope-inspiring Obama. He's all talk, she said, going on to mention that Adolph Hitler was also a powerful orator. Sleazy, eh?


The group email brought up Hillary's usual "concerns" about Obama's lack of experience. True, he was never First Lady. Obama is a first term senator. Hillary is only a second term senator. Even her point man Bill Clinton can't argue that. That is not a huge experience gap. Her USO junket with Sindbad the comic hardly counts, whether she dodged mortar-fire or not. She did not.

Predictably, Hillary hammers away at her talking points. That repetition -- and the occasional dirty trick from the Karl Rove playbook -- has helped her in certain polls. She still lags, but she seems to be casting doubt among the timid.


Is Hillary better qualified than Obama? Is Obama all talk? Who can best beat McCain? What about the roll of the superdelegates? What about the battleground states? Should we count the Florida and Michigan votes? Who should answer the scary phone call in the middle of the night?

Matt Taibbi does a good job answering these questions in the current issue of Rolling Stone. To read his article, "Hillary's Flimsy Case," please click here.

MEASURING THE LIMBAUGH EFFECT

Stop me if you've heard this one. What's the difference between the Hindenburg and Rush Limbaugh?

One is a huge Nazi gasbag.

The other is a dirigible.

Okay, this is an update on a story we ran a while back about Rush urging Republicans in Texas to cross over and vote for Hillary in the primary, thereby stopping the Obama momentum and insuring the Democratic Punch and Judy Show continues. The New York Times political blog gives us this report here.

1968 CAMPAIGN AD: DEMOCRAT BOBBY KENNEDY

The Democratic ad from liberal Bobby Kennedy.

1968 CAMPAIGN AD: REPUBLICAN RICHARD NIXON

Conservative Republican ad for Richard Nixon from the 1968 campaign. Here, Tricky Dick tries to get "psychedelic" to reach youth. Notice the shot of a young, beardless Jerry Garcia near the beginning, when Nixon mentions "American youth today has it's fringes..."

BIG FAT IDIOT TAKES CREDIT

Conservative gasbag Rush Limbaugh claimed some credit today for Hillary Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Limbaugh spent much of his show Monday exhorting Republican listeners to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton to prevent Democrats from unifying around Barack Obama as Republicans have done around John McCain.

'What we did, if we did anything, is to create a bunch of chaos in the Democrat Party and it worked,' Limbaugh said."

For more, see the Sun-Times article here.

FIGHTING DIRTY WITH CAMPAIGN VOODOO

I read the news today, oh, boy. In case you missed it, it's getting nasty on the campaign trail. As a result of winning the last eleven contests, front runner Barrack Obama has caught a load of crap from John McCain and Hillary Clinton. Well, not officially. They say they are shocked, shocked, shocked by such crap, and they show their spotless hands and smile, but I'm sure they're watching the polls to see if it worked.

At a big McCain rally in Cincinnati, the introductory speaker slammed Obama, shouting "Barack Hussein Obama" three times to stir up the crowd. Then he accused Obama of sympathizing "with world leaders who want to kill us."

Of course, the candidate distanced himself from such bad behavior.


Hillary Clinton's in a tight spot, desperate to win Ohio and Texas and losing the last eleven primaries to Obama. She needs to win, and you can't blame her. Suddenly, a photograph is circulated (by someone in her camp, according the Drudge Report) showing Obama in traditional African dress on a trip to Kenya in 2006. In the photo, Obama appears to be wearing a turban. This plays into the fear and misconception some stupid people have that Obama is a Muslim loyal to our sworn enemies.

Of course, the candidate distanced herself from such bad behavior.


It's called DISINFORMATION. The trick is getting it out there and letting it do it's damage, then playing dumb, distancing oneself from it, and taking the high moral ground. Tricky Dick Nixon called it "plausible deniability." You have your henchmen, your Watergate plumbers, your swiftboaters -- they do the deeds while you keep your hands clean. Sure, it's desperate and pathetic, but sometimes it works.