In a recent interview on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News Channel, Barack Obama stated, “I think the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated. It’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”
This concession was both unnecessary and harmful to the Obama campaign.
Aside from the surge, there are many underlying causes of the reduced level of violence in Iraq. And Obama had no need to heap praise on the position taken by John McCain as we enter the home stretch of the presidential campaign.
But the bigger question is why did Obama’s advisers schedule an appearance for their candidate on The O’Reilly Factor? (Click Here to Read More)
In her speech before the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin delivered a zinger to the Obama forces. She said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
That night, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe came to the defense of his boss. He said, quite accurately, that community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement, and labor rights.
But the defense also identified Obama with civil disobedience and rebellion associated with the American protest movement. This defense was perfect in the 1960s. Today it doesn’t fly with voters in many parts of America such as central Pennsylvania and upper Michigan. (Click Here to Read More)
Why is it that black people in our country have to convince others of their patriotism and loyalty to the United States? Seems like this is almost always the case. Last week, Barack Obama, the only black man who has ever had a chance of becoming president of the United States, felt compelled to give a long address explaining his loyalty and patriotism.
Now comes a cover of The New Yorker magazine making a clever but not so subtle affirmation of the beliefs held by so many in our nation that the Obamas are dangerous, dark-skinned flag burners.
The New Yorker magazine cover, which hit the newsstands Monday, pictures Barack Obama in Muslim garb. He is fist-bumping with his wife Michelle, who is depicted as a machine gun-toting terrorist. The cover drawing shows a portrait of Osama bin Laden hanging in the Oval Office. An American flag is burning in the fireplace. (Click Here to Read More)
John McCain’s explosive temper is well documented. His hometown newspaper The Arizona Republic calls his temper “volcanic.” Published reports refer to scores of intemperate blasts in which he has called opponents and colleagues “shitheads,” “assholes,” and in at least one case, a “fucking jerk.”
These are not partisan charges from Democratic opponents. Here are examples of McCain’s short fuse as offered by Republicans:
• Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi told the Boston Globe this past winter, “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me. The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.” Cochran recalls that at a diplomatic meeting in Nicaragua in 1987, McCain, in a fit of rage, grabbed an associate of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega by the shirt collar and pulled him out of his chair.
• Former GOP Congressman from New York John LeBoutillier has said, “I think he is mentally unstable and not fit to be president.” (Click Here to Read More)
Voters Need to Be Told How McCain Has Flip-Flopped and Backtracked on Dozens of Major Issues
A candidate for high office who flip-flops on important issues signals to voters that he or she is more interested in getting elected that in advancing sound public policy. Consistent flip-flops are solid proof of hypocrisy, an absence of integrity, and a lack of qualifications for public office.
John Kerry’s famous 2004 flip-flop, “I voted for the war, before I voted against it” revealed that he was trying to play both sides of the political fence. This was a fatal blow to his candidacy which the Bush reelection team used to their great advantage.
Until recently Obama has been consistent in keeping to his principles. Now the McCain camp pounced on Obama’s reversal of his promise on public financing. Indeed, Obama had committed a flip-flop on this issue but this case is a single one. And Obama has good reason to change his position on this issue. It is now certain that there will be a number of 527 political action committees that will attack Obama on all fronts. These committees can spend as much money as they want. Obama will need to raise money to combat these charges.
So even if one faults Obama for flip-flopping on public financing, he did so for a good reason. And as Andrew Sullivan has written, no one has said that Obama does not have flaws. But let’s turn to the record of John McCain. (Click Here to Read More)
On the night he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, nationwide television showed Barack and Michelle Obama celebrating the news by doing the fist bump, also known as the fist pound or simply as the “dap.”
One commentator on Fox News referred to it as a “terrorist fist jab.”
For the Obamas the fist bump is today’s equivalent to the passionate on-camera embrace of Al and Tipper Gore after Gore had clinched the nomination in 2000.
The origins of the fist bump are disputed. But despite its widespread use today by whites and blacks, for many white Americans the fist bump is distinctly a black gesture and one that has origins in radical traditions of Jesse Jackson or even the Black Panthers or Malcolm X.
For this reason, the fist bump can be just another reminder to many whites that the Obamas are black. (Click Here to Read More)
It appears that Senator Obama believes the term “community organizer” favorably connects him with with his weakest constituency: low-income or working class voters. In fact, a huge number of these voters may say, “What the hell is a community organizer?”
Barack Obama often talks about his early days in Chicago as a community organizer. In fact, using an online database ObamaElectionWatch has found 1,857 news articles over the past two years in which Obama is referred to or identifies himself as a community organizer.
Obama’s years of lobbying for playgrounds, job training, or better housing for poor residents of Chicago’s South Side was noble work. But many, if not most, white voters may attach negative connotations to the term community organizer. To some voters the term may be a link with radicalism, street protest, or even communism. (Click Here to Read More)
