Newsweek's Secrets of the Campaign is great stuff, reporting "consisting of exclusive behind-the-scenes reporting from the McCain and Obama camps assembled by a special team of reporters who were granted year-long access on the condition that none of their findings appear until after Election Day."
Seven chapters that tell a story that among other aspects of the 2008 campaign that McCain is a lying weasel.
Showing posts with label 2008 presidential campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 presidential campaign. Show all posts
Nov 7, 2008
Oct 29, 2008
Evans-Novak: Obama Narrow Win, Dems Big Senate, House Win
"Sen. Barack Obama is poised to be the nation’s first black president, winning by a narrow margin, and enjoying very large Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress ... ," reads the Evans-Novak Political Report.
Good news, my friends, from a veteran rightwing newsletter.
Good news, my friends, from a veteran rightwing newsletter.
Big Colorado Voting Case Heard Today
Update: Voting-rights activists cut a deal with Colorado's secretary of state late Wednesday that will ensure some 20,000 voters removed from state rolls will get to cast a ballot.
Colorado is in play with a slight and growing Obama lead, and together with a Virginia win for Obama would all but guarantee a victory for the Democratic nominee.
The GOP is trying suppress voters en masse, courtesy of Colorado's Katherine Harris: Secretary of State Mike Coffman.
Fortunately, the judge hearing the case is Judge John L. Kane, a rule-of-law judge with an honest reputation.
From the Brennan Center for Justice's Susan Lehman:
Colorado may have illegally purged 27,000 voters from the state's voter registration lists.
This afternoon, Colorado District Judge Kane holds a hearing in Common Cause Colorado, et al. v. Sec. of State Coffman. Judge Kane may issue a ruling from the bench.
Common Cause and other voting rights groups say state election board officials violated the National Voter Registration Act by, among other things, removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
The plaintiffs question election officials' alleged reasons for removing voters from the list citing, for example, the state's claim that they removed these names only as part of routine list maintenance.
-
Check with the http://www.brennancenter.org/ site or Google tonight for an update.
- via mal contends
Colorado is in play with a slight and growing Obama lead, and together with a Virginia win for Obama would all but guarantee a victory for the Democratic nominee.
The GOP is trying suppress voters en masse, courtesy of Colorado's Katherine Harris: Secretary of State Mike Coffman.
Fortunately, the judge hearing the case is Judge John L. Kane, a rule-of-law judge with an honest reputation.
From the Brennan Center for Justice's Susan Lehman:
Colorado may have illegally purged 27,000 voters from the state's voter registration lists.
This afternoon, Colorado District Judge Kane holds a hearing in Common Cause Colorado, et al. v. Sec. of State Coffman. Judge Kane may issue a ruling from the bench.
Common Cause and other voting rights groups say state election board officials violated the National Voter Registration Act by, among other things, removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election.
The plaintiffs question election officials' alleged reasons for removing voters from the list citing, for example, the state's claim that they removed these names only as part of routine list maintenance.
-
Check with the http://www.brennancenter.org/ site or Google tonight for an update.
- via mal contends
Oct 28, 2008
McCain: Bad Liar and Loser
Update: Politics of bigotry may finally be over
Amid the voter suppression, the GOP corruption (for example Wisconsin Atty Gen. J.B. Van Hollen, US Atty Gen. Michael Mukasey), the appeals to fear and xenophobia (one can go on), an observer can plainly see why John McCain is going to lose.
Sure, the structure of the campaign in light of the economy and a divided GOP are instructive.
But one other aspect of the McCain campaign is clear: He's a horrible liar, hence an unsuccessful GOP presidential nominee for which lying is a necessity to winning a presidential general election. [The same imperative does not apply to the Democratic nominee but that's for a different column.]
"Detractory or defamatory lies should not be quite opposite to the qualities the person is supposed to have, " writes Dr. John Arbuthnot in Treatise on the Art of Political Lying (1714), (cited by Hitchens, Grand Street, Autumn, 1985).
In other words, the political lie has to be plausible. It must fit onto the existing image if it is to be believed, and the target audience of the lie has to be susceptible.
As Wall Street veers wildly and Americans fear for their families' futures, McCain and Palin are repeatedly and desperately hitting Obama for being a "redistributor," a President Robinhood who wants to take your money for which you work and then give the money away to others.
Give away to whom? It is darkly suggested in the paranoid, fearful minds of the Republican base though not explicitly stated, that blacks and Mexicans are the amorphous 'others' whom we must fear, along with their bag man Obama.
McCain and Palin have two problems with their political lies.
Never mind the incoherence with which Palin and McCain deliver the message, the existing psychological matrix of the electorate is inadequate for McCain's purposes; the public sees minorities absent the hostility of 30 years ago.
That's why few "independents" and "moderates" are buying McCain's snake oil.
Considering Obama's obvious qualities, the lie of his taking away our money and giving it away just does not ring true.
Not in Obama's biography that is well known now, not in Obama's steady debate performances, not in Obama's reasonable-sounding economic and tax proposals, not in his clear empathy for working families, and certainly not in the money being taken away right now from our retirement accounts by the cold free markets and years of Republican rule that Obama is in no way a part of, but with whom McCain is intimately and indisputably tied.
And as millions of Americans see $10,000s of their savings go down the drain, the "redistributor" brand just does not seem all that threatening anyway; it even has a certain appeal.
The lie is implausible and the audience is no longer there to believe it.
That's what makes McCain an ineffective liar and a political loser.
- via mal contends
Amid the voter suppression, the GOP corruption (for example Wisconsin Atty Gen. J.B. Van Hollen, US Atty Gen. Michael Mukasey), the appeals to fear and xenophobia (one can go on), an observer can plainly see why John McCain is going to lose.
Sure, the structure of the campaign in light of the economy and a divided GOP are instructive.
But one other aspect of the McCain campaign is clear: He's a horrible liar, hence an unsuccessful GOP presidential nominee for which lying is a necessity to winning a presidential general election. [The same imperative does not apply to the Democratic nominee but that's for a different column.]
"Detractory or defamatory lies should not be quite opposite to the qualities the person is supposed to have, " writes Dr. John Arbuthnot in Treatise on the Art of Political Lying (1714), (cited by Hitchens, Grand Street, Autumn, 1985).
In other words, the political lie has to be plausible. It must fit onto the existing image if it is to be believed, and the target audience of the lie has to be susceptible.
As Wall Street veers wildly and Americans fear for their families' futures, McCain and Palin are repeatedly and desperately hitting Obama for being a "redistributor," a President Robinhood who wants to take your money for which you work and then give the money away to others.
Give away to whom? It is darkly suggested in the paranoid, fearful minds of the Republican base though not explicitly stated, that blacks and Mexicans are the amorphous 'others' whom we must fear, along with their bag man Obama.
McCain and Palin have two problems with their political lies.
Never mind the incoherence with which Palin and McCain deliver the message, the existing psychological matrix of the electorate is inadequate for McCain's purposes; the public sees minorities absent the hostility of 30 years ago.
That's why few "independents" and "moderates" are buying McCain's snake oil.
Considering Obama's obvious qualities, the lie of his taking away our money and giving it away just does not ring true.
Not in Obama's biography that is well known now, not in Obama's steady debate performances, not in Obama's reasonable-sounding economic and tax proposals, not in his clear empathy for working families, and certainly not in the money being taken away right now from our retirement accounts by the cold free markets and years of Republican rule that Obama is in no way a part of, but with whom McCain is intimately and indisputably tied.
And as millions of Americans see $10,000s of their savings go down the drain, the "redistributor" brand just does not seem all that threatening anyway; it even has a certain appeal.
The lie is implausible and the audience is no longer there to believe it.
That's what makes McCain an ineffective liar and a political loser.
- via mal contends
Oct 26, 2008
James Dobson, That Poor, Sad Person
Check out this letter from James Dobson's Focus on the Family that I ran across on MyDD.
What's interesting is that there are 100,000s of religious whacks who are reachable on a political and human level.
James Dobson's a buffoon.
But a lot of the grassroots religious people seek community and fellowship, and suspect all that compassion-tolerance-love-peace stuff might actually not be realized by war, greed, hate and the screw-you politiks of today's GOP.
Let's not give up on reaching these people.
What's interesting is that there are 100,000s of religious whacks who are reachable on a political and human level.
James Dobson's a buffoon.
But a lot of the grassroots religious people seek community and fellowship, and suspect all that compassion-tolerance-love-peace stuff might actually not be realized by war, greed, hate and the screw-you politiks of today's GOP.
Let's not give up on reaching these people.
Oct 25, 2008
Obama Hits 51 at Pollster.com
For the first time, Pollster.com shows Obama breaking the 51 percent mark as he opens up his eight-point lead over John McCain.
Obama national lead of 51.2 to 42.4 comes as key battleground states show Obama opening up a sizable lead over McCain.
On election night keep an eye on Virginia.
If Obama takes Virginia, have the champagne bottles pointed in a safe direction, because McCain will be virtually without a shot at winning not matter how many votes they try to suppress.
Obama national lead of 51.2 to 42.4 comes as key battleground states show Obama opening up a sizable lead over McCain.
On election night keep an eye on Virginia.
If Obama takes Virginia, have the champagne bottles pointed in a safe direction, because McCain will be virtually without a shot at winning not matter how many votes they try to suppress.
Oct 24, 2008
Bush Seeks Forced Provisional Voting in Ohio
Incredible! Bush wants the US DOJ to look into the Ohio voting controversy, seeking forced provisional voting that suppresses legal voters.
After being shot down by the US Supreme Court on using the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the purpose of declaring eligible voters to be tentatively ineligible because of database mismatches - a purpose that the text of HAVA expressively forbids - Bush and the Republicans will not give up.
As the Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association write in their amicus brief in the Van Hollen v. GAB Wisconsin case, provisional voting is inherently suppressive, and many provisional voters will not be able to come back the next day to further corroborate their legal voting status, and will leave the polling place not knowing if their votes count.
A provisional ballot is a second-class vote. The voter leaves the polling place not knowing whether his or her vote will count. He or she will only find out by calling a toll-free number or checking a website. If the answer is that the vote was not counted, the voter will be given a reason, but by then it will be too late to correct. That voter will have been directly and absolutely deprived of the right to vote without a meaningful remedy. (Link to brief filed by Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association in Van Hollen v. GAB.)
This will not be a problem in Wisconsin, but the GOP is not giving up on stealing Ohio, again.
From RollCall:
President Bush is asking the Justice Department to look into whether 200,000 Buckeye State poll-goers must use provisional ballots on Election Day because their names do not match state databases.
White House spokesman Carlton Carroll confirmed Friday that the president will forward a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), requesting that the Justice Department look into whether the state’s voter rolls comply with the Help America Vote Act.
In a letter dated on Friday, the House GOP leader wrote that with Election Day 'less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial.'
Folks, we have a major political party, the Republicans, who will do almost anything to stay in power. It's time for mass civil disobedience, something, to disrupt this outlaw element in the American political body. This is not a Party that is deserving of any respect whatsoever in our democracy.
After being shot down by the US Supreme Court on using the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) for the purpose of declaring eligible voters to be tentatively ineligible because of database mismatches - a purpose that the text of HAVA expressively forbids - Bush and the Republicans will not give up.
As the Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association write in their amicus brief in the Van Hollen v. GAB Wisconsin case, provisional voting is inherently suppressive, and many provisional voters will not be able to come back the next day to further corroborate their legal voting status, and will leave the polling place not knowing if their votes count.
A provisional ballot is a second-class vote. The voter leaves the polling place not knowing whether his or her vote will count. He or she will only find out by calling a toll-free number or checking a website. If the answer is that the vote was not counted, the voter will be given a reason, but by then it will be too late to correct. That voter will have been directly and absolutely deprived of the right to vote without a meaningful remedy. (Link to brief filed by Milwaukee Branch of NAACP and the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association in Van Hollen v. GAB.)
This will not be a problem in Wisconsin, but the GOP is not giving up on stealing Ohio, again.
From RollCall:
President Bush is asking the Justice Department to look into whether 200,000 Buckeye State poll-goers must use provisional ballots on Election Day because their names do not match state databases.
White House spokesman Carlton Carroll confirmed Friday that the president will forward a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), requesting that the Justice Department look into whether the state’s voter rolls comply with the Help America Vote Act.
In a letter dated on Friday, the House GOP leader wrote that with Election Day 'less than two weeks away, immediate action by the Department is not only warranted, but also crucial.'
Folks, we have a major political party, the Republicans, who will do almost anything to stay in power. It's time for mass civil disobedience, something, to disrupt this outlaw element in the American political body. This is not a Party that is deserving of any respect whatsoever in our democracy.
Oct 23, 2008
Dane County Expects Record 90%-plus Turnout, Unofficial Estimate Says
A veteran elections official said today that Dane County is preparing for a record-breaking, 90-percent-plus turnout in the Nov. 4 presidential election.
The official said that the unofficial estimate is based on the number of absentee ballots requested and already cast, among other signs of high voter interest.
Election officials in Dane County are telling poll workers (election inspectors) working the second of two shifts on election day to expect a late night because absentee ballots cannot be counted until after the polls have closed, per Wisconsin law.
Poll workers can work a 6:00 AM-1:00 PM shift, a 1:00 PM-till close shift, or an all-day shift.
It's doubtful, the official said, that absentee ballots could be counted before 11:00 PM in some Dane County municipalities.
Dane County Cushion for Obama
Dane County supplied a 90,000-plus, winning margin for John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, and is expected to provide an even higher vote margin for Barack Obama this election cycle.
An analysis of the national electoral college states conducted here shows that if Virginia or North Carolina goes for Obama, Wisconsin will become a must-win state for McCain, based on current state polling numbers.
The record-breaking turnout may make a relatively early election night impossible if Dane County, usually at or among the highest in voter turnout of Wisconsin's 72 counties, has numerous wards reporting in around midnight.
The network exit polling, however, could show a Wisconsin victory for Obama shortly after the polls close, if current pro-Obama trends continue in the state.
The official said that the unofficial estimate is based on the number of absentee ballots requested and already cast, among other signs of high voter interest.
Election officials in Dane County are telling poll workers (election inspectors) working the second of two shifts on election day to expect a late night because absentee ballots cannot be counted until after the polls have closed, per Wisconsin law.
Poll workers can work a 6:00 AM-1:00 PM shift, a 1:00 PM-till close shift, or an all-day shift.
It's doubtful, the official said, that absentee ballots could be counted before 11:00 PM in some Dane County municipalities.
Dane County Cushion for Obama
Dane County supplied a 90,000-plus, winning margin for John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, and is expected to provide an even higher vote margin for Barack Obama this election cycle.
An analysis of the national electoral college states conducted here shows that if Virginia or North Carolina goes for Obama, Wisconsin will become a must-win state for McCain, based on current state polling numbers.
The record-breaking turnout may make a relatively early election night impossible if Dane County, usually at or among the highest in voter turnout of Wisconsin's 72 counties, has numerous wards reporting in around midnight.
The network exit polling, however, could show a Wisconsin victory for Obama shortly after the polls close, if current pro-Obama trends continue in the state.
Oct 18, 2008
GOP ACORN Nuttiness
Great stuff in the Democratic Strategist by J. P. Green knocking down the voter fraud nonsense that Wisconsin's Attorney General and the national GOP keep shamelessly lying about:
You have to give the Republicans credit for having a lot of raw nerve. How does a political leader who professes to have enough integrity to ask for public support get in front of national TV cameras and rail against a non-profit organization for turning in some fraudulent voter registration forms, when his/her political party is the worst purveyor of vote theft in the history of democracy?
At the 3rd presidential debate at Hofstra on Wednesday night John McCain said that ACORN was "on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
In Westchester Ohio, GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin told a rally "In this election, especially here in Ohio, you’re going to be asked to choose between a candidate who will not disavow a group committing voter fraud and a leader who will not tolerate it."
This from the standard-bearers of the party that gave us the Brooks Brothers Riot and other electoral atrocities in the 2000 and 2004 elections. For a good history of Republican "ballot security" campaigns going back several decades, click here.
Since the smear ACORN campaign began, ACORN workers have experienced death threats, racist insults and their offices have been vandalized in at least two cities, according to this report by Greg Gordon of McCatchy Newspapers.
You have to give the Republicans credit for having a lot of raw nerve. How does a political leader who professes to have enough integrity to ask for public support get in front of national TV cameras and rail against a non-profit organization for turning in some fraudulent voter registration forms, when his/her political party is the worst purveyor of vote theft in the history of democracy?
At the 3rd presidential debate at Hofstra on Wednesday night John McCain said that ACORN was "on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
In Westchester Ohio, GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin told a rally "In this election, especially here in Ohio, you’re going to be asked to choose between a candidate who will not disavow a group committing voter fraud and a leader who will not tolerate it."
This from the standard-bearers of the party that gave us the Brooks Brothers Riot and other electoral atrocities in the 2000 and 2004 elections. For a good history of Republican "ballot security" campaigns going back several decades, click here.
Since the smear ACORN campaign began, ACORN workers have experienced death threats, racist insults and their offices have been vandalized in at least two cities, according to this report by Greg Gordon of McCatchy Newspapers.
Oct 14, 2008
McCainCon Nearing Completion
Poor John McCain.
His campaign embraces McCarthyite tactics; appeals to fear and racism, throws around the GOP charges of voter fraud, and the rightwing still hates him.
As we have noted here before, though there's no open talk from GOP insiders: There is a secret let-McCain-fall program: Call it McCainCon [a play on the secret EComCon conspiracy from the Seven Days in May movie based on the Fletcher Knebel-Charles W. Bailey II book].
McCain is a fatally weak GOP candidate to face Obama, and it’s likely that many GOP movement wingers see him as a 2008 sacrificial sheep happily slaughtered to the 2012-2016 gods.
That appeared clear months before.
Now, McCain has really miffed the rightwing. The Hill reports that McCain
I'm suggesting a plot by conservative movement officers to sabotage the GOP nominee for president of the United States.
And many conservatives need only participate with faint energy in the campaign to add their support to this McCainCon conspiracy, watching a man they dislike take the fall in a Goldwateresque election for the GOP.
I wonder if the Council for National Policy and other McCainCon operatives will watch McCain fall with modesty and grace.
- via mal contends
His campaign embraces McCarthyite tactics; appeals to fear and racism, throws around the GOP charges of voter fraud, and the rightwing still hates him.
As we have noted here before, though there's no open talk from GOP insiders: There is a secret let-McCain-fall program: Call it McCainCon [a play on the secret EComCon conspiracy from the Seven Days in May movie based on the Fletcher Knebel-Charles W. Bailey II book].
McCain is a fatally weak GOP candidate to face Obama, and it’s likely that many GOP movement wingers see him as a 2008 sacrificial sheep happily slaughtered to the 2012-2016 gods.
That appeared clear months before.
Now, McCain has really miffed the rightwing. The Hill reports that McCain
has alienated the Republican base by supporting a $700 billion Wall Street bailout and proposing that the federal government buy mortgages facing default, conservative lawmakers and observers say.
Three conservative House Republicans (speaking on background) said Sen. McCain (Ariz.), the party’s presidential nominee, missed an important opportunity to prove his credentials as a proponent of limited government by opposing the massive bailout.
I'm suggesting a plot by conservative movement officers to sabotage the GOP nominee for president of the United States.
And many conservatives need only participate with faint energy in the campaign to add their support to this McCainCon conspiracy, watching a man they dislike take the fall in a Goldwateresque election for the GOP.
I wonder if the Council for National Policy and other McCainCon operatives will watch McCain fall with modesty and grace.
- via mal contends
Oct 10, 2008
Obama Wants 911 Highjackers to Have Valid Drivers' Licenses
I just knew that there is something about Barack Hussein Obama that the white half of me should not and cannot trust. The same goes to those liberal soft-on-voter-fraud types.
To all of you liberals, and I'm one of them: We cannot say we were not warned, and: Those patriots in Waukesha are right!
From a Human Events fundraising e-mail:
To all of you liberals, and I'm one of them: We cannot say we were not warned, and: Those patriots in Waukesha are right!
From a Human Events fundraising e-mail:
Dear Fellow American:
We have just weeks to go before Election Day . . . time is running short for us to avert a major disaster for our country. That disaster's name is President Barack Obama.
But this disaster can be averted. I'm confident about this - even though the slanted media are overstating Obama's inevitability. ...
Barack Obama is not simply a risky choice as our next president - He is a dangerous one. ...
But there is one issue almost all Americans agree on: Illegal aliens should not be given driver's licenses.
Help Expose Obama's License Plan - Click Here Now
... Did you know that Mohamed Atta, the 9/11 ring leader, had a valid Florida driver's license?
Did you know 13 of the 19 hijackers had obtained valid driver's licenses? Armed with these licenses, eight of the hijackers even registered to vote!
Here is the shocking fact: Obama strongly supports giving illegal aliens in America driver's licenses.
He said as much during two Democratic debates earlier this year.
Oct 9, 2008
Wisconsin Political Data and Analyses Lead Country
via mal contends - Wisconsin is ground zero, along with some seven other states, in the 2008 presidential election.
Small-time (by marketing standards) Milwaukee and Green Bay are two of nation's top four markets for presidential ads, and the state ranks sixth among the key battlegrounds in TV spending (Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
How do we know that? We know through the work of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which compiles statistical data on political spending in broadcast media around the country, including this latest report (for which I cannot find a link): Nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign's recent advertisements are negative.
And the Wisconsin Advertising Project is not alone in its contributions to political knowledge.
Wisconsin is ground zero to among the nation's most insightful political data gathering and analyses, often cited by the national media and used as analytical resources in describing voting demographics, voting preferences, and various trends.
Other examples include Election08Data and Political Arithmetic.
But these are not secretive campaign strategists planning their appeals to the voters, these are public outfits and publicly minded academics and political junkies.
The value of Wisconsin's long commitment to public education and the Wisconsin Idea is clear.
It is no wonder that the grand-daddy of all polls--the Nielsen ratings--also has long ties to the University of Wisconsin System in Arthur Charles Neilson, Sr., BS, University of Wisconsin at Madison (1918).
Small-time (by marketing standards) Milwaukee and Green Bay are two of nation's top four markets for presidential ads, and the state ranks sixth among the key battlegrounds in TV spending (Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
How do we know that? We know through the work of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which compiles statistical data on political spending in broadcast media around the country, including this latest report (for which I cannot find a link): Nearly 100 percent of the McCain campaign's recent advertisements are negative.
And the Wisconsin Advertising Project is not alone in its contributions to political knowledge.
Wisconsin is ground zero to among the nation's most insightful political data gathering and analyses, often cited by the national media and used as analytical resources in describing voting demographics, voting preferences, and various trends.
Other examples include Election08Data and Political Arithmetic.
But these are not secretive campaign strategists planning their appeals to the voters, these are public outfits and publicly minded academics and political junkies.
The value of Wisconsin's long commitment to public education and the Wisconsin Idea is clear.
It is no wonder that the grand-daddy of all polls--the Nielsen ratings--also has long ties to the University of Wisconsin System in Arthur Charles Neilson, Sr., BS, University of Wisconsin at Madison (1918).
Campaign Race Sees McCain Fading
via mal contends - Update: Dem strategists see landslide
Nothing like seeing a mean, miserable, race-baiting old bastard sink.
The Evans-Novak Political Report reports a Grim Picture for McCain saying "The picture is as grim for Sen. John McCain and Republicans as it is for the U.S. financial sector. If the election were today, Sen. Barack Obama would win in a blowout, with huge coattails at the Senate and House level."
Various electoral vote predictions agree.
Pollster.com, Election08data, 538.com, and the Intrade Prediction Market Electoral Map all show an electoral blowout.
Alan I. Abramowitz at the writes at The CrystalBall08:
Defining and branding Barack Obama involve what advertising and marketing professionals call impressions—the projection of one image (in this case Barack Obama) onto one human brain (a voter), and a truism of cognitive psychology, that fear and anxiety reactions are intimately related to cognitive beliefs and thus can be manipulated.
Designing and managing Obama’s brand by generating impressions for the benefit of John McCain, it is necessary to merge negative (ostensibly plausible) aspects of Obama onto the consciousness of key voting demographics susceptible to certain appeals based on fear and xenophobia.
The more frequent and emotionally potent the impression, the greater is the political impact.
That’s why we see the McCain project of generating political impressions of Muslim, Black, stranger, unsteady, creepy, alien, inexperience, Ayers, not one of us and so on. Who is this man? Is he going to kill us or get us killed? Those ludicrous questions are meant to be invoked by appeals to fear. So we are seeing in response a biographical TV spot by Obama being run again. Obama looks like such a nice black man; maybe he's a good one of them.
The Obama response is working well. And less people than McCain would like don't care so very much about black as green.
One threat to the McCain project is the negative reaction of the African-American community and its allies well-versed in recognizing racist appeals, subtle or not so subtle. In Milwaukee, for instance, 1o,000s of people came out in February and voted for Obama and judging from an examination of a sample of their voting histories, these were depoliticized and non-frequently voting people, just the type that the GOP wants to frustrate and suppress at the polls.
Concomitant with branding Obama is the project of projecting McCain as a unique and convincing brand of steady, strong, experienced, familiar, and knowledgeable with vast foreign policy and national security experience.
That is failing miserably as this week's debate reveals.
Some demographics can be counted on to actively combat McCain’s racist, divisive project:
- Today's socially tolerant under-29 vote
- Social justice progressives
- Casually political, middle-class Americans fed-up with seven years of Bush and division and concerned about fairness
- Women and minorities
- Growing numbers of professionals
McCain is running out of Americans to divide.
[Some parts of the above piece are borrowed from a March 12 column run as Obama had locked up the nomination some three weeks previously in a snowy Wisconsin February.]
Nothing like seeing a mean, miserable, race-baiting old bastard sink.
The Evans-Novak Political Report reports a Grim Picture for McCain saying "The picture is as grim for Sen. John McCain and Republicans as it is for the U.S. financial sector. If the election were today, Sen. Barack Obama would win in a blowout, with huge coattails at the Senate and House level."
Various electoral vote predictions agree.
Pollster.com, Election08data, 538.com, and the Intrade Prediction Market Electoral Map all show an electoral blowout.
Alan I. Abramowitz at the writes at The CrystalBall08:
In the past sixty days, despite a series of dramatic events including the Democratic and Republican national conventions, John McCain's surprise selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running-mate, a financial crisis on Wall Street, and the first presidential and vice-presidential debates, there has been very little change in the relative standing of the candidates. ... With one month remaining in the 2008 presidential campaign, both national and state polls indicate that the election is still Barack Obama's to lose. Obama is running ahead of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry, in the large majority of states and in every major demographic group with the exception of voters over the age of 65. He continues to do far better than Kerry among two groups: voters under the age of 30 and Hispanics. He is currently leading in 13 of 15 battleground states.McCain's desperate and predictable tactics (that truth be told Hillary employed to a far lesser extent last winter) ought to result in someone asking McCain: Do you not have any shame?
Defining and branding Barack Obama involve what advertising and marketing professionals call impressions—the projection of one image (in this case Barack Obama) onto one human brain (a voter), and a truism of cognitive psychology, that fear and anxiety reactions are intimately related to cognitive beliefs and thus can be manipulated.
Designing and managing Obama’s brand by generating impressions for the benefit of John McCain, it is necessary to merge negative (ostensibly plausible) aspects of Obama onto the consciousness of key voting demographics susceptible to certain appeals based on fear and xenophobia.
The more frequent and emotionally potent the impression, the greater is the political impact.
That’s why we see the McCain project of generating political impressions of Muslim, Black, stranger, unsteady, creepy, alien, inexperience, Ayers, not one of us and so on. Who is this man? Is he going to kill us or get us killed? Those ludicrous questions are meant to be invoked by appeals to fear. So we are seeing in response a biographical TV spot by Obama being run again. Obama looks like such a nice black man; maybe he's a good one of them.
The Obama response is working well. And less people than McCain would like don't care so very much about black as green.
One threat to the McCain project is the negative reaction of the African-American community and its allies well-versed in recognizing racist appeals, subtle or not so subtle. In Milwaukee, for instance, 1o,000s of people came out in February and voted for Obama and judging from an examination of a sample of their voting histories, these were depoliticized and non-frequently voting people, just the type that the GOP wants to frustrate and suppress at the polls.
Concomitant with branding Obama is the project of projecting McCain as a unique and convincing brand of steady, strong, experienced, familiar, and knowledgeable with vast foreign policy and national security experience.
That is failing miserably as this week's debate reveals.
Some demographics can be counted on to actively combat McCain’s racist, divisive project:
- Today's socially tolerant under-29 vote
- Social justice progressives
- Casually political, middle-class Americans fed-up with seven years of Bush and division and concerned about fairness
- Women and minorities
- Growing numbers of professionals
McCain is running out of Americans to divide.
[Some parts of the above piece are borrowed from a March 12 column run as Obama had locked up the nomination some three weeks previously in a snowy Wisconsin February.]
Oct 6, 2008
Obama to Release Documentary on McCain Keating Five Scandal
Hitting back hard at John McCain's last-minute smears and lies, Barack Obama's campaign is releasing a documentary detailing John McCain's involvement in the Keating Five scandal.
From the AP: "Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat and Obama supporter, warned against McCain's strategy. 'If we are going to go down this road, you know, Barack Obama was eight years old, somehow responsible for Bill Ayers,' he said. 'At 58, John McCain was associating with Charles Keating.'"
Emanuel is known as "Rahmbo" for his aggressive style that vis a vis Karl Rove uses facts against his political enemies.
These guys fight back. To paraphrase Sidney Blumenthal: Barack is from the toughest neighborhood in New York: Chicago.
From the Obama campaign:
Over the weekend, John McCain's top adviser announced their plan to stop engaging in a debate over the economy and 'turn the page to more direct, personal attacks on Barack Obama.
In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to change the subject from the central question of this election. Perhaps because the policies McCain supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend.
But it's not just McCain's role in the current crisis that they're avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.
During the savings and loan crisis of the late '80s and early '90s, McCain's political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan, one of the largest in the country. More than 23,000 investors lost their savings.
Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion. Sound familiar?
In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee.
The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.
So at noon Eastern on Monday, October 6th, we're releasing a 13-minute documentary about the scandal called "Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis" -- it will be available at KeatingEconomics.com, along with background information that every voter should know.
... The point of the film and the web site is that John McCain still hasn't learned his lesson. And this time, McCain's bankrupt economic philosophy has put our economy at the brink of collapse and put millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes.
Watch the video to see why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment is a recipe for deepening the crisis: http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It's no wonder John McCain would rather spend the last month of this election smearing Barack's character instead of talking about the top priority issue for voters. But if we work together, we can make sure the focus stays on the economy -- and how to fix it.
From the AP: "Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat and Obama supporter, warned against McCain's strategy. 'If we are going to go down this road, you know, Barack Obama was eight years old, somehow responsible for Bill Ayers,' he said. 'At 58, John McCain was associating with Charles Keating.'"
Emanuel is known as "Rahmbo" for his aggressive style that vis a vis Karl Rove uses facts against his political enemies.
These guys fight back. To paraphrase Sidney Blumenthal: Barack is from the toughest neighborhood in New York: Chicago.
From the Obama campaign:
Over the weekend, John McCain's top adviser announced their plan to stop engaging in a debate over the economy and 'turn the page to more direct, personal attacks on Barack Obama.
In the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, they want to change the subject from the central question of this election. Perhaps because the policies McCain supported these past eight years and wants to continue are pretty hard to defend.
But it's not just McCain's role in the current crisis that they're avoiding. The backward economic philosophy and culture of corruption that helped create the current crisis are looking more and more like the other major financial crisis of our time.
During the savings and loan crisis of the late '80s and early '90s, McCain's political favors and aggressive support for deregulation put him at the center of the fall of Lincoln Savings and Loan, one of the largest in the country. More than 23,000 investors lost their savings.
Overall, the savings and loan crisis required the federal government to bail out the savings of hundreds of thousands of families and ultimately cost American taxpayers $124 billion. Sound familiar?
In that crisis, John McCain and his political patron, Charles Keating, played central roles that ultimately landed Keating in jail for fraud and McCain in front of the Senate Ethics Committee.
The McCain campaign has tried to avoid talking about the scandal, but with so many parallels to the current crisis, McCain's Keating history is relevant and voters deserve to know the facts -- and see for themselves the pattern of poor judgment by John McCain.
So at noon Eastern on Monday, October 6th, we're releasing a 13-minute documentary about the scandal called "Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis" -- it will be available at KeatingEconomics.com, along with background information that every voter should know.
... The point of the film and the web site is that John McCain still hasn't learned his lesson. And this time, McCain's bankrupt economic philosophy has put our economy at the brink of collapse and put millions of Americans at risk of losing their homes.
Watch the video to see why John McCain's failed philosophy and poor judgment is a recipe for deepening the crisis: http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo
It's no wonder John McCain would rather spend the last month of this election smearing Barack's character instead of talking about the top priority issue for voters. But if we work together, we can make sure the focus stays on the economy -- and how to fix it.
Sep 17, 2008
Sep 4, 2008
Ugly GOP Times
Since modern conventions in 1992 and the atonal culture war drums, upbeat tones, looking to the future and speaking to issues that hit home have been the fare of the grand theaters.
Not this one.
From an Obama campaign e-mail on the GOP conclave:
Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people? With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing. Our convention was different. We gave the stage to everyday Americans who hunger for change and stepped up to make phone calls, knock on doors, and raise money in small amounts in their communities. You may have missed it, but we also showed the country a video with the faces and voices of those organizers, volunteers, and donors from every corner of the country.
What you didn't hear from the Republicans at their convention is a single new idea about how to make the healthcare system work, get our economy moving for the middle class, or improve education. Just attacks -- on me, and on you. But what the McCain attack squad doesn't understand is that people like you -- who devote part of their busy lives to organizing and building their communities -- have the power to change this country. With your help, that's exactly what we're going to do.
Thank you, Barack
Not this one.
From an Obama campaign e-mail on the GOP conclave:
Why would the Republicans spend a whole night of their convention attacking ordinary people? With the nation watching, the Republicans mocked, dismissed, and actually laughed out loud at Americans who engage in community service and organizing. Our convention was different. We gave the stage to everyday Americans who hunger for change and stepped up to make phone calls, knock on doors, and raise money in small amounts in their communities. You may have missed it, but we also showed the country a video with the faces and voices of those organizers, volunteers, and donors from every corner of the country.
What you didn't hear from the Republicans at their convention is a single new idea about how to make the healthcare system work, get our economy moving for the middle class, or improve education. Just attacks -- on me, and on you. But what the McCain attack squad doesn't understand is that people like you -- who devote part of their busy lives to organizing and building their communities -- have the power to change this country. With your help, that's exactly what we're going to do.
Thank you, Barack
Aug 6, 2008
Jul 30, 2008
Novak Wrong in Calling Steady Five-Point Obama Lead a 'Bad Sign'
via mal contends - Robert Novak opines that "Republican losses in Congress will range from bad to catastrophic ... ," and yet Novak still contends that McCain has an even 50 shot at winning the election because of the static some-five-point-lead Obama has enjoyed at the polls for weeks.
"The complete lack of movement in the national polls is good news for Sen. John McCain and bad news for Sen. Barack Obama, even as the Democrat continues to hold a modest lead," writes Novak, whom we hope stays with us for decades to come.
But since when does a newcomer, non-incumbent presidential nominee blow away his challenger in the polls before the conventions and Labor Day—the first Monday in September. Can anyone name one example?
As Alan Abramowitz, Thomas E. Mann, and Larry J. Sabato write:
... virtually all of the evidence that we have reviewed--historical patterns, structural features of this election cycle, and national and state polls conducted over the last several months--point to a comfortable Obama/Democratic party victory in November. Trumpeting this race as a toss-up, almost certain to produce another nail-biter finish, distorts the evidence and does a disservice to readers and viewers who rely upon such punditry.
"The complete lack of movement in the national polls is good news for Sen. John McCain and bad news for Sen. Barack Obama, even as the Democrat continues to hold a modest lead," writes Novak, whom we hope stays with us for decades to come.
But since when does a newcomer, non-incumbent presidential nominee blow away his challenger in the polls before the conventions and Labor Day—the first Monday in September. Can anyone name one example?
As Alan Abramowitz, Thomas E. Mann, and Larry J. Sabato write:
... virtually all of the evidence that we have reviewed--historical patterns, structural features of this election cycle, and national and state polls conducted over the last several months--point to a comfortable Obama/Democratic party victory in November. Trumpeting this race as a toss-up, almost certain to produce another nail-biter finish, distorts the evidence and does a disservice to readers and viewers who rely upon such punditry.
Jul 20, 2008
CBS News Shows Obama Winning the Election
Update: Andrew Card laughed off Morning Joe for "Time Horizon" (updated w/Video); from The Nation, see Graham Usher: Obama in Afghanistan--Be Careful What You Wish For and John Nichols: Obama in Afghanistan--A Wrong Turn
I bet Obama's people wish this CBS News report by Lara Logan on the Afghanistan trip gets viral.
Obama's argument that the wrong war in Iraq is diverting resources from the right war in Afghanistan in fast becoming a political truism, eradicating one major desperate hope of McCain to be portrayed as a wise foreign policy maven in the campaign.
McCain will be destroyed on domestic political issues no matter how often his new allies depict Obama as a liberal, socialist, Muslim, not-real-American in the sleazy manner of contemporary GOP politics. McCain is gone.
Would like to hear more from Obama that the Iraq War is continuing lie, and Afghanistan not too much better, but righting one imperial disaster at a time, I guess, is the best that one can hope for in American presidential politics.
I bet Obama's people wish this CBS News report by Lara Logan on the Afghanistan trip gets viral.
Obama's argument that the wrong war in Iraq is diverting resources from the right war in Afghanistan in fast becoming a political truism, eradicating one major desperate hope of McCain to be portrayed as a wise foreign policy maven in the campaign.
McCain will be destroyed on domestic political issues no matter how often his new allies depict Obama as a liberal, socialist, Muslim, not-real-American in the sleazy manner of contemporary GOP politics. McCain is gone.
Would like to hear more from Obama that the Iraq War is continuing lie, and Afghanistan not too much better, but righting one imperial disaster at a time, I guess, is the best that one can hope for in American presidential politics.
Jul 19, 2008
Underperforming with Religious Right Dooms McCain
Some are coming to the conclusion that the religious right's hostility to John McCain notwithstanding, they are settling for the guy.
The Carpetbagger Report offers this:
I’ve been wondering what the Religious Right is going to do about John McCain. These groups are clearly not crazy about the guy. But I predicted months ago that the fear of a Democratic president would terrify them so much that they would come around. That’s what appears to be happening.
Not true.
McCain will underperform, and Obama will overperform with the grassroots of the religious right, which is all that has to happen to destroy the GOP nominee.
As much as I disagree with the religious right’s grassroots on just about everything, from personal experience in speaking with some of these people (in Wisconsin), my conclusion is that commitment to “community” matters and perception of authenticity matters.
That McCain does not have to a sufficient degree, though their campaign is working on it.
The Carpetbagger Report offers this:
I’ve been wondering what the Religious Right is going to do about John McCain. These groups are clearly not crazy about the guy. But I predicted months ago that the fear of a Democratic president would terrify them so much that they would come around. That’s what appears to be happening.
Not true.
McCain will underperform, and Obama will overperform with the grassroots of the religious right, which is all that has to happen to destroy the GOP nominee.
As much as I disagree with the religious right’s grassroots on just about everything, from personal experience in speaking with some of these people (in Wisconsin), my conclusion is that commitment to “community” matters and perception of authenticity matters.
That McCain does not have to a sufficient degree, though their campaign is working on it.
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