I hope he does that. The media will ask, “Who does he think he is, some soccer star?” The press would slaughter him for making light of an issue you might find silly until you consider how many millions of flags, flag pins, flag decals Wal-Mart imports from China to sell to all of us ‘good, solid Americans’.

Obama wearing the flag as some sort of cape would be viewed as extemely offensive to some.

He should simply have responded during the debate, “Where’s your flag pin Charlie? Aren’t you a patriotic American?”

You’re being very deceptive Louise. If someone wasn’t familiar with the Prayer Breakfast they might believe you when you suggest that when the Clintons were having marital issues they called Rev. Wright to come right over and personally work with them, which was never the case. Wright was one of several hundred people in the room with the Clintons. Not nearly the kind of one-on-one kind of therepy you suggest to bolster your weak arguement. Not one reasonable person will equate twenty years in the pews with a 40 minute White House audience with the President, First Lady and hundreds of others. Nice try though. I believe that you trying to tie the knot between Wright and the Clintons is the exact type of ‘politics as usual’ that Obama has promised the American people he would not engage in and go to Washington to fight against? So which is it? Fight from the higher ground and get your ass kicked or come down to the gutter and try to smear the Clintons with rancid Wright juice? Sucks being holier-than-thou, doesn’t it?

FOX Lies!! Irresponsible Media! Barack Obama Pastor Wright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature =related

“Fox news doctored and falsified the video of Obama’s pastor Wright. Wright did not preach those words himself. He was quoting a White Man.; Ambassador Edward Peck. And he is a retired, white, career U.S. diplomat who served 32-years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was chief of the U.S.mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter. The complete video below will show that Pastor Wright is telling his audience that “I will tell you what a white man named Ambassador Peck said”. And then he will quote Mr. Peck. And he ends by reminding his congregation “A white man said this, I didn’t say it”. Fox didn’t show that because they wanted people to think it came from Pastor Wright.”

***

And of course Hillary didn’t check it out either. Contemptuous, especially when you consider, when she and Bill were having their “marital” difficulties, it was Wright they turned to for spiritual guidance.

Guess she forgot. Cause she sure didn’t hesitate to say, if he were her preacher she would leave his church. Course a safe way to deal with that is never join a church. Just call on their leaders to help when you’re in a bind.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32903

Obama reflects the ways of Jimmy Carter alot more than Hillary.

Peter Rv

You’re right here, and I stand corrected..

“..BTW,you are also wrong in assuming that Goldwater Republicans have ‘long gone to the far radical right of the neo-Cons’. Quite few of us haven’t, and are backing Obama all the way…”

Without a doubt, I worded that inappropriately, and realized it myself, after the fact. I also gave the name of John Dean’s book incorrectly as well, it’s actually, “Conservatives Without a Conscience”

And, it was actually from his excellent book that I got a better view of the Goldwater Republicans. I was too young to vote or even be particularly concerned about politics during his time, but since my family had always been democrats, and because the Goldwater crowd in Southern California was also informally attached to the ‘not so fond of people of color crowd” the Goldwater political brand never promised much of anything other than more of the same to large portions of the population that included people of color. It really was as simple as that.

However, since then, I’ve done as much as I can to get an objective view of the basic ideology, and so I understand far better now, how vastly different the neo-cons are from the original principles guiding the conservatism of the Republican party. At the same time, I also understand now, that ALL of these terms and ideologies have changed, or been otherwise turned on their heads over the past 4 decades.

Conservative has a different interpretation now, as does liberal. And we don’t just have the neo-conservatives, but the neo-liberals as well, and I don’t see a whole bunch of difference between the two neos. What used to be ‘liberal Democrats” and what used to mean ‘liberal’ doesn’t mean that any longer, and the wing of the Democratic Party that the Clintons represent have never seemed to be my brand of Liberal Democrat. I’m of the Martin Luther King, Jr. brand of Democracy, without the same measure of influence from the theological side.

Anyway, I do stand corrected on that part. I’m also curious though, about how you square the old Goldwater Conservatives with the weird stuff from Ron Paul? No offense intended here, but just out of curiosity, do you think he represents that same type of conservatism from that Goldwater Era? I admit that he doesn’t seem to fit in any of these, though he’s been tagged from time to time as a neo-liberal, though I’m not sure that would be at all the case. He’s an odd one.

Samosamo, thanks for the link and the info on the website and DVD.

Joe6pak, I don’t actually specialize in punch lines. I just pretty much stick with calling a spade a spade. In other words…it is what it is, and my guess is that it’ll probably all work out anyway, even if you DO decide to find a whole lot more to do in November than vote for Obama. I don’t think anyone was actually ‘counting’ on your vote there.

There again, it is what it is, and most of us have seen enough of it to know that it will never go away completely.

Meantime, I came across the piece by Steve Weissman, that I posted earlier on, on ‘Baiting Obama’. I think he calls it pretty close to what is typical politics, but he doesn’t mention the obvious addition to that, which is the fact that Barack is black. That has of course been a ‘KNOWN’ drawback since the beginning, and one that he or any of his team would have been foolish to ignore.

On the other hand, it has worked in his favor as well, because it was that very assumption by his ‘competition’ and others, (that he’d never get any serious attention because he was black) that has caught them by surprise.

It’s been my admonishment for as long as long as I’ve been grown…’never ASSUME’ what other folks may think, feel, or otherwise interpret. Progress happens regardless, and some of us DO still employ critical thinking. I know that seems hard for many to discern, considering that enough people actually put Dick Bush in office for 2 terms.

Still, it’s like I keep saying, lots of us are smarter than we look.

This jibes very much with what several of you have already said. Eric Barth, and others. I’ve only posted a portion of it here.

Baiting Obama
By Steve Weissman
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 21 April 2008

Bill Ayers is one of the more interesting people I’ve known, and I would love to discuss how, in the heat of the Vietnam War, he went from running a Summerhill school in Anna Arbor to bombing government buildings as a leader of the Weather Underground. I could even explain why I thought then - and still think - that Bill was wrong to do so.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a provocative theologian, whose heated rhetoric bears a striking similarity to some of the later speeches of another black preacher, the Rev. Martin Luther King. We could all learn from studying King’s words, and those of the Reverend Wright, and decide for ourselves where we agree and disagree.

White workers in the rust belt, whether bitter or offended, could similarly teach us a great deal, especially when political scoundrels such as Dick Cheney sing the praises of “Guns, Guts and Glory” as they send a disproportionate number of those hard-pressed workers, their sons and their daughters to fight and die for the freedom of Big Oil in Iraq.

But using “bittergate,” Wright and Ayers to drag down Barack Obama has nothing to do with fair-minded debate and discussion. Nor is all this a needed vetting of Obama, as Hillary persists in saying. The current noise is nothing less than the predictable rebirth of an American political tradition. Call it redbaiting, witch-hunting or McCarthyism, the old slime is back and the reasons go far beyond the demands of Gotcha journalism and electoral combat.

As anyone addicted to surfing the web knows, right wing Internet web sites, Fox News, and right wing talk radio have for some time been smearing Obama as a secret Marxist, Leninist elitist, secret Muslim and hater of Israel. Many of the attacks have specifically raised the specter of Bill Ayers and the Reverend Wright. The poison reached The New York Times on April 14, when the neo-conservative columnist William Kristol led a stinging attack on Obama with six paragraphs on Karl Marx and his description of religion as “the opium of the people.” The ever-smiling Kristol headlined his attack “The Mask Slips.”

(Continues)
None of this was a secret to the Clinton campaign, which kept saying Obama had not been vetted and would prove an easy target for those nasty old Republicans. Hillary directed this argument to the super delegates, but I suspect she was also trying to encourage mainstream journalists to go after Obama with the same smears the right wing had been using. Then came ABC’s prime time debate and - no surprise - Hillary teamed up with Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, Bill Clinton’s former press secretary, to red-bait Obama as if he were a reluctant witness called before HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Those of us of a certain age have seen this movie before, and I could not help hoping Obama would reply to his self-appointed inquisitors as Woody Allen did in the 1976 film, “The Front.” “Fellas, I don’t recognize the right of this committee to ask me these kinds of questions. And furthermore, you can go fuck yourselves.” But no. Far cooler, Obama did his best to pivot and turn back to the real concerns of those Joe Lieberman calls “mainstream Americans,” which is exactly the way to go. In time, Obama might also rise above the fray with his huge smile and that great quip from Ronald Reagan, “There you go again.”

Check the link for the rest…

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042108J.shtml

It IS satire, right?..
....sounds like you’ve been pretty close there takin’ excellent notes..
Do Be Careful…

(Reminds me of Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’...)

Astute observation and I would not want some of my secrets divulged and not let it be, but we are talking about a part of democracy that is essential to maintaining a healthy democracy. These wannabes know this and no body is calling them on this tremendous issue or putting the questions in the debates.
If there is not a way to start getting this and other questions about our democracy to the wannabes then everybody should grab a gun and head for woods to just roll it over and take from behind because as long as you are alive it can and will get worse.

Arguing about the Philadelphia faux debate or about the pros and cons of Obama vs. Clinton vs. McCain is, in a very broad but important sense, much like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

The passengers on this liner didn’t want to hear about the complexity and inherent dangers of speeding through iceberg-filled waters. And once the berg was struck they didn’t want to hear the news from the engine room. 

No - the passengers wanted to go back to the show, back to the drinks and dancing. Some wanted to go back to sleep. Very few wanted to go down and investigate the cause. And fewer still, once seeing that the ship was in trouble, knew what to do to save it.

The Captain and his crew refused to even acknowledge the danger and damage. Instead, he kept telling the passengers all was well; that we’re unsinkable. Because we needed assurance and wanted a strong and simple answer, we went along with the story - even as the water was rushing in on us. We went back to the bar and back to the dance floor and back to bed.

That, after this absolutely useless, no-end-in-sight occupation that has cost us over 4,000 souls and an unknown number of Iraqi citizens’ lives; that after knowing this war and occupation may well cost us ONE TRILLION DOLLARS; that after knowing we’re facing record debts with a decaying infrastructure; after knowing we’re a sickening population increasingly able to afford decent health care; that after hearing non-partisan commission after non-partison commission report and confirm the profound errors (if not purposeful manipulations) of this administration - if not after all this, we’re STILL debating which candidate loves this country more or which one wears a lapel pin or which one is more religious - we’re truly aboard a sinking ship and we’re all - Republican, Democrat, Green or Independent - going down with it.

And what about the media? Well, they were always around to report on the shipboard romances, sit at the Captain’s table and toast to freedom and democracy, dance and play shuffleboard with the passengers. Sure, they were down below (embedded with the coal-stokers) as we raced through the iceberg fields. Wow, that made a good story about the bravery of the crew and the invincibility of the ship! (Now, as to WHY we were in dangerous waters in the first place? Well, that was just too complex and too boring a story to report on. Besides, the Captain assured us all was well so why rock the boat?) Party on!

But the commercial-based media can always smell a good story. After all, it’s about selling the story...it’s about market share, demographics and advertising dollars. So you’ll be sure they’ll be there to report the screams and cries as the ship goes down! Film at 11!

Sorry for the lead, it was from another site but here is the link:

http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/

If you go to Information Clearing House the video is listed in small letters scrolled down the left hand side of the page. The visuals are not that great but the audio is good.
Purchase the dvd from amazon and it may not play on anything but a laptop. Purchase it from the web site and it will play on regular dvd players, plus it has 70 extra minutes of interviews with the likes of Bob McChesney, Vincent Bugliosi, Charles Lewis and others. Very eye opening into the world of tricks and shenanigans(sp).

I kept expecting the cyrena punchline, but it never came.

You guys can keep suggesting that I am a racist bigot and that all I really need to do is take a sip of the delicious Kool-Aid. Sorry.

Hey I can’t believe that Obamabots are so quick to disparage me, a white male, the swing vote of this election. Keep pointing and acusing all you want. Keep belitting me and attacking an opposing viewpoint with the venom of a black tiger snake and I promise to find all kinds of better things to do with my time in November than voting for Obama.

“Out of the three Obama offers something the other two do not, he seems to have a disregard for Washington as usual.”

Are you serious Leefeller?

I’ll give the Obama campaign credit where it’s due. That campaign has convinced an awful lot of people that Obama isn’t the same kind of politician McCain and Clinton are. They have done a wonderful job in the marketing of Obama as an ‘outsider’ and it just isn’t true. He’s New Coke and leaving millions with a crappy after-taste.

I only hope Hillary can put up double digits in her win tomorrow…

samosamo..

I’ve been trying to find the link that you mentioned here...at truthout. But, maybe I don’t really know what I’m looking for.

Is there a section or title name that you can give us? Or, if we do the Orwell search, will that get us to it?

I’ll try. Any name or keyword would be helpful if you get time.

Thanks

Next we get to watch them discuss the best way to torture like the first Republican debate, now that I think about it, that was a real debate?

Joesixpack you change your name again? Doesn’t it feel better to let you real feelings out?

Mass Media is owned by special interests, they allow reporting of the news only in support of their interests.  If you owned the “Samosamo” news would you report everything that was not in you own best interest. As an honest person with integrity you may, but let’s face it how much integrity do we believe is out their in the real world?

Limiting the news to the lies of those in power has been an ongoing program for quite a while now.  Back to the simple fact we live in a Plutocracy.

Cynical you

Actually I agree with your basic point, that the three are not the best of choices.  The MM has selected them for us, under a guided agenda. 

Your cynical request for a resume of past accomplishments and achievements is an empty request, because you already know your answer.

Out of the three Obama offers something the other two do not, he seems to have a disregard for Washington as usual.  We know the other two offer status quo, Obama we do not know if he will keep his promises or try to.  I know one thing, I will not vote for known status quo.

Hey, Margaret, McCain doesn’t need a good plan.  This is America!  Keep pounding away at O-B-1-Kabama’s obvious lack of patriotism and his association with anti-American undesirable-types like Wright, add to that your amazing wartime heroism and voila!, no plan necessary.

I think, largely because of this and the Dems glaring ineptness, we’ll be inaugurating Pres. McCain in Nov., and I’d almost bet my pension on that.

Most of all, as a pro-working class American, I’ve been left out of this election.  For me, it’s moot.

DO NOT JUDGE US BY YOUR OWN PORTAYAL- YOUR OWN PROPOGANDA!
It is not US of whom you speak- it is the media.
Disloyal is the media who gave up it Duties as the Peoples souce of accurate Information, A FREE PRESS!
Short Attention Span- I’ve been watching not only the Medias March towards UnAmerican activities, But alos our ‘leaders’ For decades!The media has been unable or unwilling to connect any dots.
Your Fear of your own reprecussions has caused the media to Fail to speak the truth! In fact it appears your ‘Scattered’ Brains are intended to divert our attention away from the linear Deductive Reasoning We still possess- While trying to hit US over the head with the Stupid Stick you have been catching the back swing.
Hint- Cheney, Rumsfeld & wolfie have been instrumental in the Poltical & Industrial Treason for Deacdes- Start with Nixons Admin and Work Your way Forward. They pulled off their first Assination with Carter (Iran Contra). They intentionally worked as Pushers using OIL, and our Flag, resources and Blood As Camoflague- Placing US in Harms Way- since the ‘70’s.Try to focus, try to follow the Dots. TRY TO CATCH UP!
Do not try to shift your Short Comings, Whorish Ways on to US!
Only reason we Channel Surf- Is because You idiots can’t get out from behind the 8 Ball!

However this reply comes out on this post I will say:
I have the american flag from my uncle’s funeral which was given for his service to this country. It is still folded but one day if all these creepy criminal neocons are ever stopped in their tracks and are held accountable for their evil actions then I will unfold this flag and display it proudly for my uncle in the name of America.
But, I may have to pass this on to my grandson so he will HOPEFULLY be able to display it in his time.

Crap! Why has NO candidate even mentioned of how they, the candidates plan to get the MSM turned back around to reporting real news and real facts about what is going on AND how they plan on diversing(or is that divesting) the monopolies of the MSM so that something as important as the fairness doctorine will be restored to give the other side of what these evil bastards are keeping from the public.
DO A SEARCH ON THE WEB FOR ‘ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE’ which can lead anyone to understand what has really happened to real information in this country.
This is the focal point of importance to the whole country because if a small group can control what you or I can or CANNOT see then how can anyone make a real decision with what they allow people to see?
truthout has a link to this web site that will play the whole dvd. EXTREMELY EDUCATIVE!

Speaking of bitter people, can you imagine how bitter feminist Hillary is going to be when reality sets in, and she realizes she has no chance of duplicating the success of her happy-go-lucky, likeable, sperm-spraying male husband? And that her daughter’s ambition is to grow up to be like her father?
Whatever her health plan is, it better cover shrink time, ‘cause she’s gonna be spending a lot of time on a couch.

Well, here’s more stuff in terms of the ‘vetting’ that everyone seems so concerned hasn’t happened with Obama. (the epitome of a farce if there ever was one)

Anyway, it’s hot off the press so to speak, and I have no idea if it will make a difference to voters in Pennsylvania, because I admit that I don’t know that much about the mindset there, other than Philadelphia and Pittsburg, which I found to have some differences.

This is designated as a ‘Special Issue’ and it is, in terms of the release date. I was surprised to discover it in my inbox, since this publication generally comes out on Thursdays.

At any rate, this is a bit of a revelation, since I know I wasn’t aware of it. Matter of fact, I recently discovered a far larger ‘bombshell’ in that the Pentagon under Bill Clinton was a ‘sponsor’ to the genocide in Rwanda, and then actively tried to cover it up. But, that is a lengthy report that I suspect would be of limited interest to most of the readers on this site. (Just not that many people keeping up with these international episodes of human slaughter)

THIS is far closer to home and of far greater interest, even though by now, I actually have to say that I’m not surprised. I would have been until about a year ago, but not anymore.

I’m posting a few excerpts, and you can access the rest at the link.

“Now Senator Hillary Clinton (D, NY) has some explaining to do.
BlackCommentator.com has learned that Bill Clinton, while president, repeatedly praised the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). This is an organization that many, including some whites and a former U.S. senator from Illinois, have called racist.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, the UDC is a neo-Confederate organization which is affiliated with such white supremacist groups as the Council of Conservative Citizens and the League of the South. Formed in 1894, the UDC limits its membership to women who are related to Confederate veterans of the “War Between the States.”
In 2000, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[a]lthough the UDC promotes an image of genteel Southern ladies…its publications” tell a different story, adding that recently the “UDC’s president, Mrs. William Wells, shared the podium with…white supremacist lawyer Kirk Lyons.”
In a 1989 UDC Magazine article, Walter W. Lee argued that “purchasers of the slaves” were actually victims of slavery, while “the worst suffering group among those engaged in the trade” were “the crews of slave ships.” Lee also made light of the horrific and deadly Middle Passage, claiming that “the sixteen inches of deck space allotted each slave is not all that much smaller that (sic) the eighteen inches that the Royal Navy allowed for each sailor’s hammock and the slaves rapidly had more room due to the much higher death rate.”
In her quest for the presidency, the U.S. Senator from New York has presented herself as a qualified expert on civil rights and a participant in the civil rights movement.
Senator Clinton has also put forth her belief that all candidates for the office should be thoroughly scrutinized, that no one should be immune, and all of the presidential candidates should be required to justify their stance on the issues before the voters and explain any contradictions that might arise.
Senator Clinton frequently speaks of her eight years experience “in the White House”. During that time Bill Clinton lavished praise on the United Daughters of the Confederacy. BlackCommentator.com has seen the following documents and presents copies of them here.”

And…they are at the link.

http://blackcommentator.com/274/274_clinton_udc_printe r_friendly.html

The article is very well done and carefully documented. Good history lesson as well.

When Constitution shredders, and American principle debasers, and outright traitors like the NeoConZionistas Rove, Cheney, Bush, Gonzales, et.al. wear the American Flag lapel pin, doesn’t that relegate the pin to the equivalent of the Devil wearing the Cross, and saying a ‘Hail Mary’ before he jabs another republican in the ass with his pitchfork?

They are not sure about Obama, they are running scared.  He is saying many things uncomfortable to the establishment.  No need to list them if you have been following campaign. 
I still maintain Obama is the best of the three and he makes more sense every-time I listen to him.  Hillary folks should get used to it, she has lost and is history.
Since you the supporters of Hillary support her with such enthusiasm, I hope you will vote for Obama when the time comes?
Bert, everything I have heard Obama will kick McCains ass, so your argument has been for naught.

I’m not so sure about that, Thomas.  I think the electorate will easily be distracted to the missing lapel flag.  None of them wants to be thought of as being UNPATRIOTIC by ignoring that issue, so they’ll hop right on, just as they do when religion, or lack of it, is the subject of the rhetoric.  To their credit, the Republicans know who they’re dealing with, on both sides of those issues and will keep those American/Apple Pie issues at the forefront.

If they can’t succeed in doing that, then they’ll lose in November. 

The strange thing is, if the electorate can be that easily manipulated away from what I see as the real issues, then I need to rethink my position.  Maybe I’m really, as they say, out to lunch.

Right now, I’d say the Dems deserve to lose in Nov., not that that matters all that much to me, a communist.

Figures. The republicans don’t know how to do anything but cheat, and Hillary is a republican. What else did we expect?

This is what they’ve been doing for decades. The Watergate break-in, and then we can skip all the stuff in-between until this latest era of the same. Florida in 2000, then Ohio in 2004, and that doesn’t even count all of the voter caging, or the out right voter intimidation, (especially in the deep south) or the purge of other voting records or anyone likely to vote Democratic.

Oh god..I could just keep going...but we all know what they do. So this time, Hillary being a Republican and all, she’s got all of the same thugs behind her as have been behind all of the other repugs.

Makes you wonder what Scaife and the rest of the ‘vast right wing’ plan to do if they can manage to burgle the Democrat nomination for her.

I’d make a small wager that as soon as THAT happens, they’ll be right behind McCain in full force. It’s enough to make me throw-up, but only if I can find an appropriate target. Wouldn’t wanna waste the energy otherwise.

>Why is it all shadowy characters always end up on Clinton’s side.  And without skipping a beat she accepts them.  Now her “old foes” are her friends.  Like they say, you can tell a person by the company they keep.  From Rawstory:

“‘Vast right-wing conspiracy’ leader’s paper backs Clinton

Hillary Clinton draws endorsement from paper owned by leader of ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’

BETH FOUHY
AP News
Apr 20, 2008 11:01 EST

“Could it be the “vast right wing conspiracy” is having second thoughts? Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton was endorsed Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.”

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/_Vast_right_wing_ conspiracy_leader__04202008.html
***

This from the Baltimore Sun:
“Barack Obama’s Allentown office was burglarized this week, and multiple laptops and cell phones were stolen, an Obama campaign aide said today. A police spokesman confirmed the incident, but couldn’t provide details today because reports are kept in the department’s records depository, which is closed weekends.

An Obama aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “a couple” field laptops were taken out of the office at 1233 Linden St. The computers have demographic information that the campaign uses to target voters. “A couple” cell phones were also taken, the aide said.”

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/200 8/04/obamas_allentowngate_laptops_m.html

>They’re cheating again.  Same ol’ republican tactic, they don’t let a little thing like ILLEGALITIES stop them.  Then again, you know that Clinton or the Republicans CAN’T win without cheating.  They can’t because most Americans know better than vote against their own self interest.
***

Then there was this story out of Philly:
“Time to reconsider

The Intelligencer

THE CONTROVERSY OVER Bucks County’s use of suspect electronic voting machines is not going away, and with a growing mountain of evidence suggesting that the machines harbor some serious flaws we think it is now incumbent upon the county commissioners to revisit their decision to purchase the machines two years ago.”

(continues)
“This week a standing-room-only crowd of some 100 citizens — and there were more who couldn’t be physically accommodated in the room — packed the commissioners meeting with a single purpose in mind: to convince Republican Commissioners Jim Cawley and Charley Martin and Democrat Diane Marseglia to support a federal bill that would reimburse counties for the cost of replacing electronic voting machines with a paper ballot voting system. Cawley and Martin refused, noting they weren’t sure the bill would really reimburse counties based on comments made by county chief operating officer Dave Sanko. A spokesman for Bucks Congressman Patrick Murphy, a co-sponsor of the bill, disputed Sanko’s analysis.”

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-02082008-14 84732.html

I have to agree with your post here Robert Giacobbe, and particularly in reference to the advantage that McCain has been able to garner from the divisiveness of the Democratic campaign.

It recalls to mind something that a die-hard republican said on this very blog several months ago..it was something to the effect of “Oh well, now the Democrats will start attacking each other, and the Republicans won’t have to do anything but sit back and wait to win.”

I admit that it gave me the chills, because I knew there was a bit of truth to it.

And, it’s no coincidence at all, that all of the other Republican candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul) dropped out LONG ago. I suspect that was a very strategic move, considering they never had anyone on the ticket worth anything anyway.

However, that’s not the ONLY ‘strategy’ in play by the GOP, because we’re witnessing some of the same Karl Rove stuff that we’ve always seen from that side of the aisle, or at least since the neocons came to power. On the one hand, Ostergoth was right in saying that Republicans are signing up by the hundreds to vote on the Democratic ticket, and for Obama, if only because the Republican Party has been so thoroughly broken by the thugs in charge now, AND because the hatred for Hillary Clinton, (much of which is NOT legitimate in my estimation) runs very deep in parts of that party. Now of course she’s sort of starting to live up to it. But still, there are long seated and deep hatreds for her, that will surely show-up at some point in time.

On the OTHER hand, there are just as many doing it for the opposite reasons, and that’s to skew the Democratic primary in a way that would situate McCain to run against Hillary, rather than Barack. I’m also inclined to believe that a great deal of this bickering has been instigated by the same Karl Rove type mechanisms, on behalf of the Republican Party. But then, I’ve never been shy about saying that I find Hillary to be basically of the Republican ideology anyway, just as I’ve always said that Bill Clinton was the best republican president we’ve ever had, and I say that as a life-long democrat that has learned to discern between the worst of the evils.

So, maybe Hillary should have stayed on as a Republican as she was when she was a Goldwater Girl. I don’t know if that would have made the difference, because the Republicans of the Goldwater Era are long since gone to the far more radical right of the neo-cons. John Dean’s book, “Conservatives Without Compassion” was right on spot in pointing this out.

Anyway, because of all of those ‘external’ skewing mechanisms taking place, it’s more difficult to judge the polls that you’ve cited here, even though polls generally do provide some measure of where the populace is. In this case, I would see a 2% lead for McCain over Obama as WAY too little to judge an outcome. Matter of fact, I take some encouragement in such a small number, all things considered.

A debate, a real debate, requires that each side, pro and con, be given the same question, allowed so much time to reply to it.  A second question is posed to each side - and the beat goes on.

So, ask Obama if Wright loves America as much as he(Obama) does, and then ask Hillary if Wright loves America as much as she (Hillary) does? If anything disqualifies that Wednesday ‘debate,’ that ridiculous scenerio does.

I am confessing that I am Clinging to:…

1. May Obama live…
2. May there BE an election…

There, I said it.

^ agree; the quality of journalism in America is now at a low ebb and with few exceptions, is in a sinking mode.  I understand personal preferences and feelings, but isn’t true reporting putting those aside for the facts?  This is possibly the most difficult part of good journalism, yes?

Aside from setting records at fund raising and winning the initial debates, the unseen hand via diebold and media coverage got him out of the picture real fast.

Ron Paul advocated getting rid of the CIA for this reason and many others.

Old nj guy,

We should ALL take this very uncomplicated lesson from you!! It is clear, concise, and puts the reality right out there for all to see. I’ve said the same myself, but not so clearly.

So, I’m gonna repeat what you said...here and everywhere else..

• “They are scared shitless that Obama will win the nomnation because they know he is highly electable over McCain…. That is why corporate media is turning on Obama at every smarmy opportunity, and playing up Hillary as much as possible….They are voting for her in Democrat primaries….Its so obvious.”
• “So pleasssssse, stop directing attention away from the truth….Republicans know they have a good chance against Hillary…They have no chance against Obama.
• ANYONE THAT DOESN’T STICK TO THIS FACT IS A REPUBLICAN.”

I would only add to the last, that anyone that doesn’t stick to this fact is a Republican OR a RACIST/BIGOT! There are still those in the population who will never vote for Obama, simply because they are that.

Fortunately, there are that many of them, as witnessed by the very ‘electibility’ that we have seen from his efforts so far.

Well bc41, if you think that these ‘out of work’ and ‘non-descript’ folks are ‘generally white’, you’re pretty stupid, and so he wasn’t talking about YOU.

The ‘mentality’ that he was referencing however, DOES apply to a very large section of the US population in it’s current state, and that includes people of ALL colors, INCLUDING African-Americans in URBAN areas as well, who have seen the jobs that THEY have traditionally held, (such as menial service/labor jobs because they’ve never had the opportunities/access to jobs higher up on the economic ladder) now being taken over by what you describe as ‘foreigners’.

Consequently, the frustration, and yes BITTERNESS, and resentment against ‘the other’ isn’t limited to blue color jobless folks in Pennsylvania or any other rural area. Nor is the inclination to ‘turn to their guns’ as witnessed by the overwhelming increase in violence between groups/gangs of blacks and Latinos in urban areas.

Unfortunately for the ‘victims’ of this mentality, as well as the actions resultant from it, they have failed to blame the right people for their plight. This ‘illegal immigration’ that everyone so despises is an ECONOMIC immigration occurring not just in the US but all over the globe, and ‘they’ are HERE, because ‘we’ AS IN US CORPORATIONS, are THERE!

Now, a whole bunch of folks don’t ‘get that’, and all they see and feel are the results as they are affected by this. And so many of them resort to the behaviors that Obama accurately described.

But, if YOU can’t figure that out, then maybe you shouldn’t try.

(BTW, he didn’t say that anyone ‘banished’ anyone that was ‘different’, so your rhetoric is lame as well.) Since YOU obviously were not among the racists that you claim voted for him, you shouldn’t try to speak for anyone who did, regardless of what color their states happen to be.

What’s this ‘Journalists are famous for their dogged drive to get the story’ crap?

Most US ‘journalists’ are air-headed witless twits, who can barely read the press releases they are handed to recite on-air while maintaining their sincerity facade.

I think pundits are feeling the same as many of the rest of us, I’m not troubled by elitists, I’m not even sure who or what they are--probably angry bloggers.  What bothers me is that Obama is going off on his tour guide mode again which is out there, talking about people like they were zoo animals or clients of his psychology practice.  I don’t think people are bitter (like he may be still not winning a nomination), are not in a stalemate (like he may see himself with Hillary).  But he as the “explainer” views rural folk first as clinging to religion, that while his choice is going to church for the radical lambast, sitting in the front row while mentor brother blames the US for 911. 

Says, they banish people that are different, like all those racists from red states that voted for him this last year reviving a downcast democratic party, right?  And being out of work, these nondescript generally white folks, don’t like foreigners moving in and taking jobs.  Shock!  Disbelief!  Oh what a tangled web they weave these bad bad rural folks are.  I can’t figure him out.

People are hurting in America.The pundits are running old campaigns.Who you had dinner with is irrelevant when I am losing my house.This is a depression election.The electorate is not in the mood to fool around.The people want answers to real questions that affect their lives.The pundits jumped on the “bitter” comment Obama made like it was wrong.If the pundits do not think there are a lot of bitter people out there who responded well to his comments all I can tell them is check the polls.

......."Luckily
the journalists and pundits
have a short attention span. 

And they’re often wrong.”