The McCain campaign is perplexed, bothered, and bewildered of late. Despite Barack Obama’s past associations with radical bombers, nauseating racial bigots, and anti-semitic Palestinians, the media doesn’t seem to want to expose the extent of those relationships nor ask tough questions as to how the views of these extremists might have shaped or impacted his own.
We can – and in many cases we should – chalk this up to a shameless bias on the part of the media toward Barack Obama and the Democrats. But something much simpler is at work, something that makes any attack on Obama by McCain using his radical associations as a backdrop to question his judgement an exercise in futility.
The voters don’t care.
America did not invent the fine old custom of tar and feathering crooked, lying, corrupt charlatans and riding them out of town on a rail (the English have been doing it for 800 years). But the mood of the American voter is so outraged at the financial crisis we are in that if I were a Congressman campaigning at home, I’d steer clear of pillow and asphalt factories for a while.
The fact is, the economy is of such overriding concern, all else in the campaign pales in comparison. The voter simply doesn’t want to hear about Ayers, Wright, Rezko or any other problematic Obama friendship. Nor, I suspect, are they keen to relive the Keating 5 fiasco or read about any other manufactured McCain association by the press.
This piece this morning by Peter Yost of the AP is a stretch – a laughably ridiculous attempt to equate John McCain’s tangential relationship to a group that later assisted in training El Salvadoran death squads with Obama’s close, personal, association with William Ayers. Yost is sticking out his tongue and saying “neener, neener, neener,” hoping that the reader will nod their head and say “By Jiminy! McCain hung around with terrorists too!”
The problem is, Yost destroys his own case in the body of the piece:
The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.The council’s founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.
“McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes,” Singlaub told The Associated Press in an interview. “I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn’t left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.
“I don’t recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group,” Singlaub said.
McCain says he resigned from the group in 1984 and asked to have his name removed from the letterhead in 1986. Singlaub also had this to say about McCain’s “involvement:”
“I don’t ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really wasn’t worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping thing,” said Singlaub. “If he didn’t want to be on the board that’s OK. It wasn’t as if he had been active participant and we were going to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported us.”
Compare McCain’s “involvement” with these nuts to Obama’s working relationship with Ayers, their friendship going back 20 years, and Obama’s clear desire to implement the radical educational agenda of Ayers when he was president of the Annenberg project. There is absolutely no symmetry here – none. And yet Yost, being a good little AP hack, tries to create some out of whole cloth.
But this is a digression from the reality of what is going on in America – the America not visited much by candidates and certainly not commented on by anyone in the mainstream media.
The America of ordinary, hard working people is fearful. And why shouldn’t they be? If they’re like me – barely able to grasp what the hell is going on in the financial markets – they nevertheless know that it is unprecedented and that some very smart people are extremely worried. When 60% of us believe we are headed for a 1930’s style depression, catcalls from candidates about who their friends might be simply doesn’t resonate. People have much bigger worries on their minds.
Admittedly, there are precious few of these “wise men” who are warning of a worldwide depression. A severe downturn, yes. Perhaps even an altering of the international financial system that would not be favorable to the United States. But soup lines and massive deflation are not currently foreseeable – not as long as the Fed is able to pump hundreds of billions of dollars at will into the banking system in order to keep it afloat until some semblance of confidence and order return to the markets.
How long can that go on? From Richard Fernandez’s site, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writing in the Telegraph:
During the past week, we have tipped over the edge, into the middle of the abyss. Systemic collapse is in full train. The Netherlands has just rushed through a second, more sweeping nationalisation of Fortis. Ireland and Greece have had to rescue all their banks. Iceland is facing an Argentine denouement. The US commercial paper market is closed. It shrank $95bn last week, and has lost $208bn in three weeks. The interbank lending market has seized up. There are almost no bids. It is a ghost market. Healthy companies cannot roll over debt. Some will have to sack staff today to stave off default. As the unflappable Warren Buffett puts it, the credit freeze is “sucking blood” out of the economy. “In my adult lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as fearful,” he said. We are fast approaching the point of no return. The only way out of this calamitous descent is “shock and awe” on a global scale, and even that may not be enough.
In the first full trading day following the bailout, stocks lost 370 points. Yes, there are alarmists out there (Paul Krugman, please go on a nice, long vacation. I hear Bellvue has some padded rooms with wonderful views.). But when Warren Buffet gets nervous, the American people who are fearful don’t appear quite so stupid and naive, now do they?
The bottom line is that attacks on character are being ignored at the moment by the voter. All they want to hear is what each candidate will do to protect them from this financial storm that is sinking so many huge and seemingly indestructible companies. The thinking goes, “If Lehman Brothers can go under, am I next?” In a free country, people have a very proprietary sense of their own money and how safe it is.
They don’t have to be told things could get a lot worse. They sense it, as a deer might sense a wolf nearby. It can’t smell the wolf but it senses danger nevertheless. Voters may not entirely understand the ins and outs of international finance, but they sense their money, their livelihoods are in peril.Hence, all other issues of the campaign – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran, education, abortion, gun rights – the whole mish mash of topics that have been fought over and discussed in this campaign now take a seat at the back of the bus as the voter wants his questions answered on the economy.
Hugh Hewitt seems optimistic that if McCain can keep hammering Obama on Ayers while showing the voters how disasterous an Obama presidency would be for the economy, he might still pull it out:
As more details emerge on the Obama-Ayers connection (here’s a short story from 1997 on Ayers that features both Obamas and which suggests that Michelle Obama organized the program that featured both Ayers and her husband), the Obama talking heads are hysterical with outrage, which is a clear signal to Team McCain to keep digging and swinging on the subject of Obama’s judgement. Just who, after all, does he intend to staff the 3,000 executive branch jobs with? Who will be at Defense and Justice and Treasury and State?.The message also has to be targeted at the reality that the dizzying declines in the markets cannot be arrested and reversed with tax hikes and unemployment benefit extensions. Even as people shudder at the rapid decline in their savings and retirement accounts, they have to be trusted to know that anti-growth polices of the sort being pushed by Obama will simply drive business, jobs and growth overseas. A tax hike agenda of the sort pushed by Obama right now is economic suicide, and John McCain has to forcefully say so.
If raising taxes and extending unemployment is what it is going to take to keep voter’s money safe, they would be willing to vote for the devil himself. Obama might not have good ideas on what to do about the crisis. But that isn’t the point. It comes down to who the voters believe. And the sad fact is John McCain, as a member of the party in power in the White House, has about as much credibility on the economy as my pet cat Snowball.
I wish it were otherwise. The more we find out about Obama’s relationship with Ayers the more I am troubled. Even more troubling has been a systematic campaign by Obama and his handlers to minimize and even lie about this relationship at every turn. Despite yeoman work done by David Freddoso and Stanley Kurtz of The National Review on how Obama helped Ayers try and implement some frighteningly radical educational ideas on the unsuspecting parents and schoolchildren of Chicago, it appears that it will all go for naught. The voter sees the effort by the McCain campaign to attack Obama on his radical associations as “just playing politics.”
And that is something they don’t want to see. They are hopping mad and scared. That’s a combination that Obama is having little trouble exploiting to his own advantage.
7:25 am
Sad, but true. Good post, Rick.
BTW, I know you’re not a big Ann Coulter fan, but she linked to your post (about Biden’s huge gaffe in the debate) at the American Thinker. Thought you should know.
8:31 am
Funny thing, the same people who “don’t care” and vote anyway for His Majesty will be, come this time next year, the first ones screaming from the rooftops, “Obama betrayed us!”
Never underestimate the idiocy of the American electorate. Don’t believe me? Here’s proof positive in the form of seven names:
Frank, Reid, Pelosi, Durbin, Boxer, Rangel, and Waters.
8:45 am
The people will care about what the MSM tells them to care about.
The MSM has gladly wrote about the Keating FIVE story, in which McCain was COMPLETELY exonorated, mostly leaving out the part where the DEMOCRATS attorney says that he shouldn’t have even BEEN part of the investigation, but that the DEMOCRAT leadership couldn’t let him go because then the rest would have been Democrats only.
The PARTY IN POWER is the DEMOCRATS, who LEAD both houses of Congress. Harry and Nancy + a ZERO like OBAMA = DISASTER
9:04 am
I’m pretty sure I was around these parts months ago suggesting that Republicans would need to be able to do more than smear Obama. They’d have to come up with some sort of vague clue as to the future and not just think Wright and Ayers would bail them out.
All this time has passed and I guarantee you the number one answer of commenters here to the question, “Why should we vote for McCain?” is still, “Because he’s not Obama.”
Fear and smear alone doesn’t do it. And erotic adoration of Vice Presidential candidates doesn’t do it. You guys needed to figure out why you liked McCain. You never did. Why? Because you don’t actually like your own candidate. Americans are about the future, not the past. And they are more about hope than fear. Funny that the alleged ideological descendants of Ronald “Morning in America” Reagan could have thought all they needed was mud.
It is not a smear to ask the next president of the United States why he is on a first name basis with a terrorist. Especially since any idiot who has a passing familiarity with his association to this lunkheaded radical knows that Obama assisted Ayers in trying to initiate radical reforms in the Chicago school system – “reforms” in name only as they were poorly disguised efforts to turn schools from places of learning into revolution training academies.
Nor is it a smear to ask the candidate how much of his “spiritual mentor’s” (his words, Michael) kookie ideas rubbed off on him. No one is saying there is not racism in America. But Wright is a nauseating bigot and a crackpot to boot. It is not a “smear” to ask him questions about Wright any more than it is a smear to ask questions about McCain’s naval service. Both campaigns would love to avoid the questions but that doesn’t mean they are correct.
You’ve got to stop parroting talking points Michael. You are losing your reputation for objectivity.
ed.
9:06 am
MarkJ Said:
8:31 am
Mark,
You should have added the MSM in the mix of those that are going to be wondering why the truth squads shutdown their reporting, if an negative articles start being printed. “Why are you picking on us, we did what you wanted to get elected?”.
9:06 am
I think that we assume people actually get more than just what CBS, ABC, etc are spewing. I have asked several acquaintances what they think about Rezko, Ayers, et al. and I usually get blank looks. Not one person has heard about these people and the type of radicalism that they represent. I forget how much I read online and hear on talk radio. If you are a person that gets their news strictly from the LA Times and CNN, you wouldn’t have a clue because they are sheltering “The One”.
Scary. These people vote and are voting for Obama. Seriously… can we institute some kind of simple test that people have to pass before voting? Like five easy questions… who is the current president, speaker of the house, secretary of state, etc? I don’t know… probably dumb, but it seems like you should have to at least prove you have been paying attention before you can affect the direction in which our country is headed.
9:08 am
You can pivot into the economy from Ayers… Obama called McCain erratic in crisis… Obama attended a conference after 9/11 with Ayers called “Intellectuals in times of crises”... tie that into McCain’s 2005 push for reform vs Obama getting change in his pocket… call out the Big (Lie) Blame of “deregulation” that they’re pushing…
9:08 am
I see your point, Rick, but tend more toward’s Hugh’s view. SInce character and judgment count, it’s fair game to bring up Obama’s ties to radical leftists. The problem as I see it is the timing.
I agree people are concerned about who’s going to do what in order to stop the economic slide. And that is their central focus right now. Of course, it would be easier to paint Obama as untrustworthy on the economy if McCain had been taking this line earlier. If he had – say around convention time – the voters would have this in mind in deciding who to follow. Now, being down in the polls, the attacks do have an edge of desperation to them simply based on the realities today. Now, they’ve pretty much set sails.
That being said, I still think it’s effective to go after these issues. McCain has a huge opportunity in the next two debates to put Obama on his back with this. I sense he’s going to try. And, it will likely hit home with a lot of undecideds who aren’t going to want to put a guy who’s “palling around with terrorists” in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But Obama’s best defense is a dismissive wave of the hand, mainly because this hasn’t been an issue until now.
9:10 am
[...] Nothing to see here. Move along. Dead pigs, hahahahaha. Posted by Dan Collins @ 1:12 pm | Trackback Share [...]
9:15 am
[...] have more on why these radical associations of Obama’s are not resonating with voters here [...]
9:16 am
Desperation is McCain’s campaign strategy. Ayers, Wright and Rezko were all brought up during the primary. They didn’t work then, they won’t work now.
9:17 am
It’s not that the voters don’t care about Ayers, it’s that they don’t know about Ayers. I think that’s going to change over the next 4 weeks. McCain needs to keep hammering the Ayers relationship, and the fact that the Democrats are responsible for the financial mess we’re in now. A month is plenty of time to do a lot of damage to Obama. If McCain can get Obama’s negatives up about 5 points he can still pull this out on Election Day.
9:29 am
Listening to you people bitch and moan about the so called Main Stream Media is as comical and ridiculous as reading the lefty blogs and reading the EXACT SAME THING. It’s the same nonsense over and over from both sides.
Ok, lets not talk about why OUR candidate is so great, instead lets whine about why the MSM doesn’t talk about how evil the other guy is.
PATHETIC. You sound like children. Take some responsibility for YOUR candidate and YOUR party for a change. It would be quite refreshing.
9:31 am
. . .poorly disguised efforts to turn schools from places of learning into revolution training academies.
I used to live in Chicago. I know the public schools. If Ayers thinks they’re the launching point for . . . well, anything . . . he’s crazy.
McCain’s wife is a drug addict who stole drugs from her own charity. McCain was apparently oblivious, or perhaps, given his long association with Cindy, he actively covered up for her as she stole drugs from sick, desperate African children. How many African children died because McCain was covering up for Cindy? Was that the essence of the conspiracy? A racist plot to kill African children by giving the drugs to a bored rich girl? That makes McCain a known associate of a self-confessed junkie and embezzler and possibly murderer. And . . . horrors! He is still associating with her.
That’s the level of these Ayers accusations. Guilt-by-association, absurd exaggeration, deliberate misreadings of reality. Obama and Ayers were working together to breed new members of the Weather Underground in Chicago public schools? Really? In this universe, or are we in an alternate universe now?
As for Wright we all know why Obama was at that church. He’s a manipulative, opportunistic, self-serving politician, and there were a hell of a lot of votes there. Same reason McCain went crawling back with his tail between his legs to embrace crazy right-wing preachers who blamed hurricanes on gay people and 9/11 on abortion supporters.
The American people aren’t ignoring this bull because they’re in a state of panic, they’re ignoring it for the same reason they didn’t go rushing off to impeach Bill Clinton. Because they are more-or-less rational people not ideologues.
You weren’t far off when you mocked me for saying that Obama was enabling Ayers to “breed new members of the Weather Underground.”
What the fuck does his sound like to you?
Ayers in Venezuala talking about education:
“For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.” Ayers concluded his speech by declaring that “Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education—a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation,” and then, as in days of old, raised his fist and chanted: “Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!”
Nope. No radical here. Move along, nothing to see says Michael.
ed.
9:32 am
If you stop attacking on Ayer’s now then you lose that weapon… it is effective.. they’re more that can drip out from the campaign that the media doesn’t cover or covers in a way to cover obama… there are many ways to pivot from Ayer’s to other subjects… you have to rewrite the narrative in a way that makes the media who tried to cover up for him look like fools… don’t just try to shock or go the bumper sticker route… be substantiative and show why it matters… which can be partly be done by tying it to other issues
9:33 am
I don’t think it’s quite right to say that Hillary bringing up Ayers or Wright didn’t work. Hillary won all the final big primaries by wide margins. The problem for her was that Obama had built up lead that couldn’t be overcome that late in the game because of the way delegates were allocated.
9:51 am
I agree with DBA. The American people have not heard about Ayers/Rezko, etc. I hadn’t just 3-4 weeks ago or so. I told people and they had no idea. This WILL lose the election for Obama. McCain/Palin need to keep talking. Americans DO CARE. It is like the OJ thing though with black Americans and extreme left people and maybe even to certain degree the MSM. Despite DNA evidence, certain segments of society declared OJ “innocent”. Well, that’s going to happen with Obama with certain segments that will refuse to take into account clear evidence. HOWEVER, please don’t believe that Americans who are not part of that populace stand will fail to care TheY WILL CARE!! And they will NOT VOTE for Obama. McCain/Palin will win this election by winning the swing votes as they continue to speak out about Ayers, imo. It’s damning evidence. It’s legitimate – and it SHOULD FRIGHTEN AMERICA!!
9:53 am
time for a little truthsay here, Rick.
McCain has no strategy.
He has a series of tactics.
Palin, while she may have looked good at the start, is cleaving your party along the intellectual fault lines.
Your party is becoming schizophrenic.
How do you endorse a candidate running a platform of anti-intellectual IQ-baiting while promoting college opportunities for every child?
How do you support a candidate that disdains proper english and scorns higher education when a college education is the dream of every “Joe Six-pack” for their child?
The Republican party has had a psychotic break with reality.
I think it is time for conservatives to look at damage control and triage.
That might be the most amatuer analysis I’ve seen yet on this site – and there have been a lot of them on both sides.
ed.
10:09 am
You write: Despite yeoman work done by David Freddoso and Stanley Kurtz of The National Review on how Obama helped Ayers try and implement some frighteningly radical educational ideas on the unsuspecting parents and schoolchildren of Chicago, it appears that it will all go for naught.
What do you consider a “frighteningly radical educational idea?”
Please see addendum to comment below where I quote Ayers speaking in Venezuala about his idea of “education.”
ed.
10:09 am
Oh yeah?
How about Palin as anti-free speech?
Sit down, Boy.
“Oh yeah” (?). How the fuck old are you? And what does Goldberg’s piece have to do with that mish mash of ridiculous “analysis” you polluted this site with? Parroting someone else’s ideas and words without giving proper credit is mindless plagiarism.
Please ask your mother if it’s okay for you to comment on this site. It is for thinking adults only, not kids who should be in school or doing their homework or something.
ed.
10:09 am
I see it a little differently. If McCain can align himself with voters, angry and scared, he will appeal to them more than the aloof Obama who is promising everything with vague platitudes. Whoever wants to win should let the guys clinging to their religion and their guns that they understand their anger and will do their best to keep them safe. Since yesterday, that seems to be McCain, calling out Obama and the Dems on this whole sorry mess.
10:33 am
Remember: Pete Yost has a long history—-He was the one who floated the story during the Dem convention in 2000 that Republicans would go after Clinton if Bush won.
The story was repeated and commented on all thru the evening by MSMers.
10:42 am
[...] Moran is one conservative who sees the McCain campaign’s latest talking point for what it is; a sign of desperation: The McCain campaign is perplexed, bothered, and bewildered of late. Despite [...]
10:51 am
[...] like Obama, himself. I don’t believe this approach will work. Right now, Americans are angry as heck and distrust the government’s solutions. If McCain is smart, he won’t be talking about [...]
10:59 am
Rick:
On a blog I edit I said that our goal was total world domination. I don’t think this means that the writers who post for me there are committed to attempting the overthrow of the government.
So Ayers is nuts. And he has a rich fantasy life. He’s obviously an egomaniac. (Not that I’m in a position to criticize that.) And in Ayers’ little crazy-town mind he’s going to start a revolution. Do you honestly think Obama—the Obama we’ve all been watching closely for two years now—also believes in launching a revolution from the Chicago Public School system? Is there some evidence that Obama is crazy as well as liberal?
Obama is not a secret radical. He’s a secret bore. His administration will be a very conventional affair.
This is fantasy and paranoia. I’ll tell you what, I personally undertake to pay you or your favorite charity $100 for every genuinely “radical” thing Obama does as president.
11:19 am
I think the jury is out. I am frustrated by Mccain’s inabiltiy or unwillingness to point out how Obama’s prescription for the country would be worse than the current direction, and indeed represents doubling down on the types of big-government interventions in the free market that got us to this point.
Americans, as you pointed out, are reeling and uncertain. They would like a leader, and Obama has done an excellent job of selling relatively undefinded “change” to a people who all agree we are going in the wrong direction. one can debate whether the effects of his policies on the economy represtn change in the RIGHT direction, but the nauseating nature of his long-term associates (Wright/Rezko/Ayers/Dorhn) is not really debatable. That’s why I expect a full court press to discredit the attacks. The Obama campaign has counterattacked because the Ayers association has the potential to be devastating to his election chances.
That said, I surprised about how weak the Obama campaign has been in its response. They’ve known that this was Obama’s unprotected left flank for the entire campaign, and the best they can come up with is this? “Obama was the most clueless guy in Chicago and didn’t know that the guy who hired him to chair a board and shose book he reviewed had a history of domestic terrorism”. That’s pretty damn weak, and it just dares the press, Gary Hart style, to look for evidence to the contrary. when even CNN is calling BS on his excuses, then you know Obama has a problem. The economy may override it in the end, but McCain needs to be sure prople at least know who they are electing.
11:21 am
[...] try, dirtbags. As Rick Moran says: Compare McCain’s “involvement” with these nuts to Obama’s working relationship [...]
11:22 am
Who cares about Ayers? What the voters might like to know is the relationship between Obama/ACORN/Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac.
Now that might be quite interesting.
11:25 am
Off topic – I’d suggest a greater difference between the “comment” and the “ed” fonts. Maybe I’m just slow, but it took two readings to realize that, while Micheal is a raving left winger, he’s not actually arguing with himself. (I think his writing style might be partly to blame for making it seem plausible).
11:28 am
Ayers is just the beginning of Barack (Barry) Obama’s sorid past relationships and connections. Lets go through the list and connect the dots:
(1) Jeremiah Wright = Louis Farrakhan (Marxist)
(2) Tony Rezko (Mobster, convicted felon)
(2) Saul Alinsky (Communist mentor)
(3) Frank Marshal Davis (Communist mentor)
(4) William Ayers (Marxist partner)
(5) Barbara Dorn (Marxist partner)
(6) Tariq al-mansour (AKA Donald Warren) (Terrorist funded education)
(7) Rash Khalidi (Hezbollah operative at Columbia U.)
(8) BORACK OBAMA (Policies and voting record to the left of Bernie Sanders (I) Vermont Senator, self declared Socialist. I’m still working on the $200M in foreign campaign contributions and why foreigners would be so interested in our U.S. election. No, no, no NOBAMA!
11:41 am
Here’s my latest seditious post that Mr. Moran censored this morning. Of course, he has every right to do so. It is his blog. The fact that I don’t know what I’m talking about and contribute nothing except repeating Democratic party talking points ad nauseum proves that not only am I a dunce but worse, a fruit fly has more brains than I do.
It makes me question why I even come to this site – all you people are so much smarter than I am. Come to think of it, I think I will, in fact, go to a site more suited to my intellectual temperment.
I wonder if they have an age limit on the Romper Room site?
“And the sad fact is John McCain, as a member of the party in power in the White House, has about as much credibility on the economy as my pet cat Snowball.”
Actually, simply by not spouting idiocies—”the fundamentals of the economy are strong”—Snowball has far greater credibility than McCain.
28 days until the Enlightenment!
11:47 am
Viva Snowball
11:49 am
Les études de BHO ont été payées par Khalid Al Mansour islamiste saoudien et je vous rapelle que l’arabie saoudite est la patrie de Ben Laden, BHO est musulman, c’est pour ça qu’on arrive pas à trouver son vrai nom, pauvre Amérique
!
11:53 am
Aiala,
I’m curious, since you seem to be a proponent for free speech, if you have concerns about Omaba’s attempts to silence critics, such as email alerts to radio shows interviewing Stanley Kurtz and on another occasion David Freddoso? given his Democratic orthodoxy, do you believe he will push for the Orwellian-sounding “Fairness Doctrine”?
11:58 am
My, my!
Anger management classes, anyone?
A
12:05 pm
I agree with Dr. L above. McCain needs to point out the connection between Obama and the Fannie/Freddie mess. The amount of campaign money he has received and his employment of Franklin Raines to his campaign. I think because it is current and can be tied back to the economic mess we’re in, it will be more effective.
Although I have to say that a guy that wouldn’t even pass the background check to be a secret service employee because of his radical associations hardly belongs in the oval office. I think his friends/associates/business partners are a BIG deal and speak volumes about his judgement or lack thereof… but maybe the connection to Fannie/Freddie will play better with the rest of the public.
12:08 pm
I think Rich Lowry has it right in this piece. McCain has to concentrate on the economy.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/mccain_cant_dodge_the_economy.html
DESGANS:
C’est past vrai. Obama is no muslim and using French doesn’t make in any better, pauvre France!
12:11 pm
I’m a Republican voting for Obama, so it’s an understatement to say I don’t care. We got bigger fish to fry; if McCain’s plan for fixing the financial markets is to grandstand and lash out at the Democrats, then we don’t need him.
I’m all about country first, and I don’t like having my patriotism questioned, especially by someone who may not be all there.
12:16 pm
Would John McCain be down right now if he had chosen Romney for the Veep slot? Here is a man who not only has charming looks, but a deep and varied body of experience that puts Biden and Palin to shame. Plus, as the head of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Committee, he has done far more than Obama ever did in Chicago as a “community organizer”. Speaking on TV about the economy, he comes across as intelligent and thoughtful in these matters, something that all the candidates lack.
Sure, he could never have fired the base up, but the independents would flock to him. If the voters care mostly about their personal economics, then the Mitt would have been able to offer them something of substance. (Can you imagine Joe Biden, the author of the bankruptcy reform bill seeming sympathetic to a voter being forced into a Chapter 13 repayment plan?) Unfortunately for John McCain, Sarah Palin offers nothing beyond firing the base up, something that seems less and less useful these days. In the end, not choosing a Veep to fill a gap in his portfolio will be the downfall of McCain.
12:19 pm
“But something much simpler is at work, something that makes any attack on Obama by McCain using his radical associations as a backdrop to question his judgement an exercise in futility.
“The voters don’t care.”
Don’t be ridiculous. Some of the voters need a better explanation, and some of them, for reasons of race or ideology, have no problem with domestic terrorists, to be sure.
But to suggest that this issue, which tells the ignorant voter more about Obama than his handlers and the MSM division of the campaign has otherwise allowed, means nothing to the swing voter and to conservative Democrats is just wrong.
It needs to be explained more clearly.
12:23 pm
all you conservatives are sad bunch of people … look what your judgment has done: 8 years of George Bush … congrats conservatives.
12:49 pm
Not even David Frum thinks that this dog is gonna hunt:
“But Bill Ayers? Does anybody really seriously believe that Barack Obama is a secret left-wing radical?”
I suspect that most people on the right don’t really care about the association either, they’re just hoping that something about it will click with the voters. Ayers is just not a household name.
In a word, yawn.
12:55 pm
IJ6P,
Out of curiosity, which policy of Kerry/Gore do you think would have been most helpful?
1) Surrender in Iraq
2) Destruction of US economy with Kyoto
3) Higher taxes
4) Increased size of government.
Given the above, Bush doesn’t look as bad. I suppose the then-Republican Congress would have opposed a Kerry or Gore, so all but the surrender in Iraq might have been avoided.
Granted, Bush will get the lion’s share of the blame for the current mess. That’s the way Presidential politics works. Frankly, he deserves it for not using his veto on any number of bloated spending bills. However, the failure of his “big-government conservatism” should be laid at the feet of “big government”, not conservatism.
1:03 pm
You mean you do not care that the man who could be the next president of the USA associates with the same type of people pocessing the same mind set as those of the 911 radicals that flew planes in to the WTC? That doesn’t both you? You feel you can intrust the US economic future, our military, our reputation in the hands of a person that has friends like home grown terrorist William Ayers,Raila Odinga,Tony Rezko,hate monger Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jeremiah Wright who teachs the black liberation theology. (fancy words for racism towards whites) New flash folks if the terrorist are able to bomb again, infiltrate our government and bring us down from the inside out you will slowly see your freedoms dwindle away. Free speech and internet blogging will be no more.
You are correct in that Ayers is not a house hold name. That fact is due to the mainstream news media being in the tank for Obama not because he is NOT a dangerous, FAR left american hating terrorist. Ayers is evil. He stated he wished he had done more, bombed more. He is nutz and if more people new that they might stop and think about Obama’s judgement and character. His cloest friends are dangerous. I also find it very troubling that the communist write very favorable things about him. http://www.cpusa.org/article/articleview/975/1/147/
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QcpdUtxNQ
I am sure some of you will say this is right wing propganda, but do you want to base your future on it?
1:13 pm
I’m relatively moderate, and if I am at all, even a little representative of most voters, I’m leaning towards voting for Obama since he’s the party that’s out of power (from the White House); no reason, really, more than that and that he’s outlined, generally a positive vision for where he sees America going.
Now, I like McCain, and in any normal year, I likely would have voted for him. But honestly, his main fault is other than attacking Obama I STILL have yet to hear where he wants to take the country, his vision for America in the 21st century and what goals as a President that he’d advance. I think that his strongest point could have been REAL energy independence. I briefly became interested when for a short time, he floated the idea of launching a Manhattan Project style-agenda to find the next mass use energy sourece that’s plentiful, cheap and clean.
But he dropped it and moved on to other things. I think that could have been a great rallying issue for him, something the rest of the country could get behind.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but both Palin and McCain haven’t uttered a reason, other than fear of Obama, why I should vote for them. I’m sure both Repub candidates are great people, but voting for them seems like America would be playing “small ball”.
1:22 pm
I think there are a lot of things to worry about Obama but to portray him as a sort of secret terrorist sympathizer is frankly ridiculous. If you go way over the top than you risk alienating the very people you want to vote for your candidate. I know some people enjoy bathing in the Daily Kos or Hot Air madness but that will never win you any election.
1:25 pm
Rick,
I thought it was interesting how you stopped answering Mike Reynolds as soon as he refined his argument to the point of real clarity.
So Ayers is nuts. And he has a rich fantasy life. He’s obviously an egomaniac. (Not that I’m in a position to criticize that.) And in Ayers’ little crazy-town mind he’s going to start a revolution. Do you honestly think Obama—the Obama we’ve all been watching closely for two years now—also believes in launching a revolution from the Chicago Public School system? Is there some evidence that Obama is crazy as well as liberal?
There is no evidence. Stanley Kurtz’s description of the Annenberg Challenge and B.O.’s role in it is distorted to the point of absurdity. For Pete’s sake, Annenberg was secretary of education in the Reagan administration.
Stanley Kurtz may have found a few grants here and there handed out to organizations that turned out to be flaky. Ever been involved in the management of a large city? That is inherent to the nature of handing out large piles of money inside a city. No vetting process is 100% perfect, *especially according to the standards of a conservative blogger.
In short, your equation of:
#1. William Ayers has radical views on education
#2. Ayers & Obama were part of the Annenberg challenge
#3. Somewhere some groups got some money and I have a document from them that demonstrates them using scary words and having a left-wing perspective in education
does not equal
#4: B.O. was pushing education ‘radicalism’
#5. The Annenberg Challenge was pushing ‘radicalism’
#6 The amount of money that made its way to groups who were radical, from within the constellation of groups asking for it, was non-trivial
#7 That “radical” here means anything more than “uses buzzwords and concepts I don’t like.”
Hell, this analysis is the kindest analysis possible* to your case. I haven’t seen, and won’t believe exists until I see it, that you even have any evidence of ‘radical’ groups in Chicago getting money from Annenberg at all. Where’s the beef?
What you basically have so far is a) William Ayers, the man b) ignorance-fueled distortion of the typical froth that comes with handing out money c) well, there is no c.
Kurtz’s examination of the record (as well as those reporters who bothered) reveal Obama to be a liar. Ayers was not “just some guy in the neighborhood.” Funny you and other Obama apologists never mention that.
The ultimate question is why? Why all these radicals, bigots, anti-semites, and political kooks in his background. The list is impressively long. What is it about these people that attracted Obama?
Not a radical? We don’t know. We know so little about this cipher thanks to a blackout of info from the campaign and the media that God knows what we’re going to get when he takes office. The Annenberg challenge records show that there were a lot of screwy ideas for “reform” that were presented. The grant money was given with no strings and there were sevearl of these “small school” pilot projects that sought to radicalize students that were approved with Obama’s help. You just can’t dismiss this as unimportant.
You and Michael are saying Obama is going to govern in a boring, conventional way. I hope to hell that’s true. But he will likely have a veto proof majority in the senate and a huge advantage in the House. What are those clowns going to send up to him to sign?
Should be interesting to see.
ed.
1:28 pm
Just another quick note, all the markets: Dow, Nasdaq and S&P are down, as of today, to around mid to late 1990’s levels. That means if you’ve been in the stock market, in some general fund or a 401K, you’d have dead money for the last DECADE.
(It isn’t better when the world financial markets are also teetering on a cliff. And it matters, because our markets are tied, like it or not, to Asia and Europe. If they go down, and if they don’t cut their own rates, we’re going down too.)
So, people are just going to look at who’s in the White House and they’ll be pissed, fair or not. If McCain can tap into that public fear and anger, ***but without coming off us angry***, then he may have a shot. Right now he looks like Nixon running against Frank Sinatra (his easy swinging ‘60’s Rat Pack era).
Obama’s advantage now is that his demeanor is cool, calm and collected in the face of turmoil.
1:38 pm
Hey, I like this Blog. Thanks for your well reasoned approach to conservative politics, it’s a refreshing change. I’ve been reading for a few weeks now, and this is the first time I’ve been moved to comment.
I’m an independent minded voter. I tend to the left side of the spectrum, but I’m not wedded to any party and am open to voting for any candidates who appeal to my sense of sanity and values.
I have decided to vote for Obama this year because he truly seems like the superior candidate. By all appearances he is an intelligent, calm, well-balanced and promising politician who has a real chance of changing the terrible policies of the last 8 years that have brought our country to such a depressing state.
Say what you will, McCain clearly shared Bush’s obsessions with financial deregulation, and is offering nothing to convince the country that he has re-thought these failed ideas. The desperate attempt by McCain to swamp the country with desperate and irrelevant accusations does nothing to convince me that he would be a thoughtful or reasonable leader. In fact, it’s having the opposite effect. I always respected McCain and voted for him in my state primary, but his campaign is making him look extremely irresponsible and even dangerous.
The real issues have nothing whatsoever to do with Obama’s scant connection with a onetime radical. The more McCain tries to make this connection, the worse he looks.
At this point in our history, it is very important to have a President with the judgment, temperament and confidence to repair our economy and restore our standing in the world. Between these two candidates, Obama is clearly the better suited for the task.
1:56 pm
could you cite your claims? I have no doubt your referencing something, but all i can find out there is “Ayers and Obama worked together in an attempt to implement education reform that didn’t do a very good job reforming.”
how does that translate to “Obama is a terrorist?”
regardless of their work together on education reform (I maen, what was Obama supposed to do? “I no longer want to work on this project. I’m not allowed to talk to people who have sketchy pasts. If i do that makes me a bad person”) what does that matter? what is this “revolution training camp” line? where? wah? who?
Guilt by association is a logical fallacy. Has Obama ever DONE anything radical with Ayers? seems like they just…you know…met a few times about education.
2:02 pm
Name one pro American close mentor of Obama’s during the time period 1985-2001. You can’t, Obama can’t. All his primary associations through most of his adulthood are radical left wing anti american whom he did not disown until forced to do so in the Presidential election. Although Obama is not building bombs in his basement, he did express the view that he was sympathetic to the ways and means of violent Black Panthers, and thought that if it were possible that they would be successful through violent acts he would favor it. It was only because in Obama’s judgment, the violence would not be successful, that he did not support it. Obama sought the same radical ends but through different means, i.e. through funding reeducation political indoctrination camps through the $150 Million paid out by the C.A.C. founded by William Ayers and run by Obama. Those funds didn’t go to fund science and math and concrete achievements, but to oppression studies, etc. run by communists, maoists, marxists and socialists. You tell me what an Obamanation administratin would do with the Billions of Dollars in Education Department funding? Why would Ayers trust someone he supposedly only met a brief time earlier, Obama, with $150 Million dollars, an inexperienced lawyer, over the possibility of having University Presidents with solid backgrounds running it? Maybe because Ayers saw Obama’s worldview as more aligned with his. Thus, the issue is what did both Obama and Ayers see in each other’s minds and outlooks that they threw their lot in with each other? That is the truly frightening thought.
Moreover, their relationship may go back even further than Obama has admitted. Ayers was at Columbia when Obama went there (what his grades were at Columbia we don’t know because Obama won’t release them), and lived blocks away from Obama. How did Obama get into Sidley Austin? Seems that Ayers father is a macha there, and unrepentent terrorist Bernadine Dohrn also had influence in the firm. Then Obama was operating an ‘educational reform’ group under the auspices of Ayers’ ‘educational reform’ groups in Chicago in the mid to late 1980s. It is inconceivable that Obama and Ayers did not meet during that time. The links are not those of ships passing in the night, (or the false McCain Singlaub relationship that DKos is trying to manufacture-like it tried to falsely manufacture an analogous relationship between McCain and Hagee to mirror the Obama Wright malignant relationship) but comrades in arms.
2:28 pm
I guess I have two issues with Obama aside form Ayers/Wright/Most Liberal Voting record: his affiliation with ACORN and his support and funding for this organization that is a driving force behind the whole sub-prime mortgage debacle.
And more importantly, Obama’s aggressive attacks on political free speech throughout this campaign – now reaching a fever pitch of intimidating practices. With the MSM in the tank for Obama, what is left than talk radio (Pelosi and Reid have promised a reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine” early in the new Congress), internet blogs, and 527 groups to investigate and publicize Obama’s background, voting records, political philosophy, etc.?
Here is a sitting US Senator who tries to use threats of DOJ investigations, IRS audits, county prosecutors filing charges, etc. to silence his critics. He bans signs at rallies on campuses of public universities, encourages his followers to aggressively confront critics and shudown radio and TV stations that broadcast interviews of people researching his background. Public records held by a library are suddenly made unavailable for weeks to stall an review of them by researchers.
His comfort in using lies, evasive commentary, threats, intimidation doesn’t make me confident that his Presidency will be one dedicated to transparency and seeking advice and input from all sides. His idea of mandatory national service and training would provide an indoctrination rich environment to shape the thoughts of this country’s youth. The aside that anyone not volunteering would be drafted into the military and sent where bullets are flying is nothing less than using life threatening intimidation against any principled person rejecting his forced culturalization of Americans.
Obama’s comments about gun control should rise an alarm about his dedication to free speech rights as well. He doesn’t affirm the Constutionally granted right of gun ownership, nor the Supreme Court finding. He says that he wouldn’t impose widespread gun ownership restrictions “because he doesn’t have the votes in Congress to get it”. When one’s commitment to Constitutionally enumerated rights is conditioned only on whether you feel you have enough votes in Congress to by-pass them, I get scared. With the distinct possibility of a Democrat super-majority in both houses of Congress, I can see rights being trampled with regularity as new imperatives of fairness and diversity and humanitarianism trump the Constitution. Once Obama’s choices for Supreme Court justices is known and cnfirmed we are in for 3-4 decades of liberal/socialist supporting rulings from the bench.
2:35 pm
Rick Said:
“We know so little about this cipher thanks to a blackout of info from the campaign and the media that God knows what we’re going to get when he takes office. ”
Meh. Going on about the media again. That’s great. Consider though that your party has made voters NOT CARE what we’re going to get, as long as it’s not what we currently have. I place the rise of Obama entirely on the shoulders of the Republican Party. Congratulations, he’s your fault.
2:40 pm
The ultimate question is why? Why all these radicals, bigots, anti-semites, and political kooks in his background. The list is impressively long. What is it about these people that attracted Obama?
Just in case anyone’s looking for a definition of “guilt by association.”
The Annenberg challenge records show that there were a lot of screwy ideas for “reform” that were presented.
You clearly don’t have kids in school. Last year my kid’s school decided Monday through Friday didn’t work and so invented A through F days, essentially changing a five day week into a six day week. Screwy is a daily reality in education.
Kurtz’s examination of the record (as well as those reporters who bothered) reveal Obama to be a liar. Ayers was not “just some guy in the neighborhood.” Funny you and other Obama apologists never mention that.
That’s it? That’s what leads us to a coming radical apocalypse? A politician lying about knowing some looney tune? Imagine that. A politician rewriting his personal history to make himself look better. I’ve never heard the like.
2:48 pm
Wow. Some of you guys really need to put the Koolaid down.
Rick is right. No one cares about this. It isn’t about not knowing about them. They simply don’t care about some guy who blew stuff up in the 60s. They care about having a job and a home.
Guilt by association is always difficult to carry through even in the best of times. Just because you may feel this is some big deal because of your political bias doesn’t mean most Americans would.
2:55 pm
So seriously… all of the people on this blog that have said they are supporting Obama… you have no problem with his past associations? Not even a twinge? I understand maybe one… maybe two… but the list of people who have ‘mentored’ or been otherwise influential in Obama’s life and have a less than savory reputation is pretty lengthy. That doesn’t give you pause at all?
I am really not trying to stir up trouble or get people riled up. I just truly don’t understand how you can discount this with a ‘oh, those smear-minded right-wing nuts making a big deal out of nothing’. An honest look at the subject, bias removed, has to at least make an objective person question Obama’s judgement.
3:12 pm
DBO,
No, I don’t have a twinge of concern. Just like I don’t have a twinge of concern for whomever “mentored” John McCain.
It is a ridiculous argument that Conservatives like to make. Why should I care who he associated with 20 years ago? Are you suggesting that John McCain never associated with lunatics? The guy calls G Gordon Liddy a friend and to many people he is a straight up lunatic.
I have associated with many dubious people in my life. Sometimes due to necessity, sometimes due to ignorance, and sometimes due to a lack of caring.
Why does his association with Ayers mean we should question his judgment? Because he should have known that someday in the future his political opponents would engage in a guilt by association campaign because of this?
3:19 pm
“The McCain campaign is perplexed, bothered, and bewildered of late.”
Baloney. The lamestream media is apoplectic that BHO is being questioned, and are in full CYA mode, but I don’t think McCain camp expected otherwise.
Nor should McCain waltz into the White House just because Obama is an Alinskyite leftist who hung with extremists his whole life. It’s About the Judgment of the man who is running TODAY. Obama lacks it. And he lacks honesty in his covering up for it. Most importantly, it exposes Obama as a lot more leftist-liberal than he pretends to be EVEN NOW.
That’s the key point. Unless and until McCain-Palin connect the dots from then to today, it wont matter much. BUT …
The McCain-Palin campaign in last few days is on all cylinders. This is not just about Wright and Ayer exposing Obama’s judgement, this is about his Chicago friends, his Fannie Mae friends, and Obama’s pattern of putting himself first and not country first.
McCain was great in Albequerque, and Palin is drawing 5 figure crowds everywhere she goes.
They are connecting the dots. From leftist activities in the past to broken promises and dishonest rhetoric today. Its painting the picture of who Obama really is.
McCain exposed Obama’s tax lies yesterday: “Again on taxes, we see a difference between what Senator Obama says today, what he said yesterday and what he has actually done. Over the course of this campaign, he has had many different plans to raise your taxes. During the Democratic primary, he promised to double taxes on every American with a dividend or an investment. He promised to raise payroll taxes. He promised higher taxes on electricity. Now, Senator Obama claims he will give 95 percent of Americans tax relief. He actually promised the same thing when he was running for Senate in Illinois, but once elected he never introduced legislation to do so. Instead, he voted for the Democratic budget resolution that promised to raise taxes on people making just 42,000 dollars a year. At the time, he even said his vote was intended to get “our nation’s priorities back on track.” If he’s such a defender of the middle class, why did he vote to raise their taxes? Whatever ha ppened to the tax relief he promised them when he was a candidate for the Senate? And why should middle class Americans trust him to keep promises he has already broken? ”
You know, this attack becomes a lot more effective when you realize that Obama spent his whole political career hanging out with people far to the left of tax hiker Walter Mondale.
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/10/john-mccain-on-obama-and-economy.html
3:20 pm
Responding to DBO @56
I hope that we have all been around enough to realize that all politicians are human – they shake a lot of hands, go to a lot of meetings, and talk to a lot of organizers before they get into positions of power. If you look at ANY of them through a fine enough microscope you’ll find some minor unsavory connection.
There is no doubt that if you tracked down every McCain acquaintance, and listed everything they ever said, you would find some downright disturbing connections. Honestly, McCain’s associations with Rev. Hagee were the first inkling I got that he wasn’t quite the anti-status quo maverick that he painted himself as. But then, you couldn’t find me ONE politician who doesn’t have some connection with some questionable donor, religious leader or business exec. NOT ONE.
And you know what? It just doesn’t make a bit of difference. McCain is looking crazier every day. Obama’s got real skills and will make a good president. In the end, smart policies, careful judgment and a confident demeanor are crucially important. Irrelevant connections with odd characters? Not su much.
3:25 pm
“Not even David Frum” ... Oh, not the ‘not even’ meme!
Tell you what. You list the other TEN THINGS THAT DAVID FRUM IS RIGHT ON first, and then we will consider whether this should be listed as #11.
Or are you a concern troll who disagrees with every breath Frum takes until its conveniently lining up with your pre-disposition?
3:35 pm
Flyerhawk—I agree. As I said one, maybe two… but the list is much longer than that. And I was speaking more broadly than Ayers. His relationship with Reverend Wright is much more current. As is his relationship with Rezko.
Gurldoggie—I guess the arguement to that would be that Obama didn’t just “shake hands” with these people. They were important figures in his life.
Thanks for the honest answers.
3:40 pm
“I hope that we have all been around enough to realize that all politicians are human – they shake a lot of hands, go to a lot of meetings, and talk to a lot of organizers before they get into positions of power. If you look at ANY of them through a fine enough microscope you’ll find some minor unsavory connection.”
Practically every person of influence in Obama’s life – his parents (Dad was a socialist economist and Mom a leftwing progressive), his teenage mentor the communist Frank David Marshall, academics like Larry Tribe, Ayers, Wright, and the New Party (communist-oriented party), which supported his first campaign – has been extreme and radical.
While he was in Chicago Obama was trained by the top Alinskyian organizers. One mentor was the ex-Jesuit, Greg Galuzzo, lead organizer for Gamaliel.
Regarding Rev Wright, who presided at Trinity UCC where Obama went for 20 years – Obama praised him as his ‘mentor’ and even titled his second book after a Rev Wright phrase, and praised his amazing sermons … until it was found out that Wright blamed the ills of the world on “white man’s greed”, blamed the US for 9/11 “chickens coming home to roost”, claimed the Govt created AIDS, etc.
These are not mere acquaintances, these are Obama’s references in Chicago.
Obama has no legislative or executive accomplishments of note. All he has to sell is himself – his judgment and capability. By throwing his own mentor and foundation collegues under the bus because they are leftwing extremists, Obama has stripped the last credible reason to vote for him.
He is the ultimate empty suit. He knows nothing and nobody that he won’t disown, has done nothing worthy of note, and brings nothing worth putting in the White House.
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-left-wing-alinsky-method-product.html
3:43 pm
“His comfort in using lies, evasive commentary, threats, intimidation doesn’t make me confident that his Presidency will be one dedicated to transparency and seeking advice and input from all sides. ”
He won’t need input from anyone but the left, since they will run the country (first time ever). Obama will have Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid running the Congress. Conservative voices will be silenced and conservative ideas shunned, and a new day of government intervention will dawn.
Fairness doctrine here we come.
3:49 pm
“if McCain’s plan for fixing the financial markets is to grandstand and lash out at the Democrats, then we don’t need him.”
McCain has a lot more than that of course, so why the strawman argument???
McCain yesterday:
“As a senator, I’ve seen the corrupt ways of Washington in wasteful spending and other abuses of power, and as president I’m going to end them—whatever it takes. I will propose and sign into law reforms to bring tax relief to the middle class and help to businesses so they can create jobs. I will get the rising cost of food and gas under control. I will help families keep their home, and help students struggling to pay for college. I will make health care more accessible and affordable. I will impose a spending freeze on all but the most vital functions of government. I will review every agency of the federal government, improve those that need to be improved and eliminate those that aren’t working for the American people. I will confront th e ten trillion-dollar debt that the federal government has run up, and balance the federal budget by the end of my term in office.”
PS, I cant believe any Republican worth his salt would vote for pro-liberal-judicial-activist Obama over McCain. McCain voted for Roberts and Alito and Obama voted against both. Judges who merely interpret laws as written is not what Obama wants; he wants judges who will twist the ‘living’ constitution on behalf of good liberal causes. Our courts will become the horrible playground of the worst types of activist meddlers if Obama starts appointing his kind of judges.
There’s either self-deception or ignorance at work among the so-called Obama Republicans.
3:51 pm
DBO,
The list of Obama associate n’er do wells is 3? Wright, Rezko, and Ayers.
None of them have any association with each other. They don’t have any shared political message. They are just guys that are embarassing for Obama. Ayers for his acts when Obama was a child, Wright for being a loud mouth past, and Rezko for getting busted for being a crook.
Honestly I think if you want to see something troublesome or pernicious here, you will. If you aren’t predisposed to do see that, you probably won’t.
On the scale of bad associates that politicians have, this really doesn’t pack much umph.
You see Ayers, others see Liddy.
You see Wright, others see Hagee.
You see Rezko, others see Keating.
You may think one is far worse than the other but I suspect most people just don’t care. It’s typical political gamesmanship.
So a bunch of people on the right will continue to be exasperated that this story doesn’t gain any traction. They will blame the media for being biased and burying the story. And they will ignore the fairly obvious fact that the public just don’t care.
3:53 pm
Freedom’s Truth,
Can you expand on these spending freezes? Does he really plan on freezing spending? Just going to shut down the government?
4:04 pm
Freedoms Truth,
I’m a conservative not necessarily a Republican and the only positive I would see in Obama is that he would get out of Iraq sooner rather than later. I would support McCain because history has shown that a ‘divided’ government tends to spend less (compare Clinton to the first six years of Bush). Apart from that you are overblowing things just a bit. The United States will survive.
4:10 pm
Not sure.
A lot of Americans don’t know about this. I talked with my father, right before the Dem convention and he wasn’t aware of the tie. Now, my father is a former state Republican chairman, so while he is “out of it” when compared to the high end news gathers represented in the blogosphere, he is certainly more “in it” than the average voter. McCain DOES need to take that case to the people. He needs to take the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac argument to them.
PS Rick – I’m not nearly as confident as I was from 60 weeks ago to 2 weeks ago.
4:14 pm
I hear a lot about this Fannie Mae link with Obama.
Is this the Jim Johnson/Pierce linking?
4:38 pm
Flyer Hawk – I don’t think that the Freddie/Fannie link is so much with Obama as it is with Democrats in general. The Republicans are being blamed for the subprime mess, and in reality, 90% of the problem, and 99% of the malfesance, rests with the Democrats. McCain needs to educate the people tonight.
4:40 pm
Like I said, I’m likely voting Obama, not that I’m crazy about him, just that I want to see what the party out of power does with four years in the White House.
But as a non-partisan, at a distance, it seems to me that McCain isn’t even making the case to the public of what I think could be his BEST strategy to win: basically tossing Congressional Republicans overboard and saying, “Look, for all intents and purposes, Democrats are going to pick up more seats in the House and Senate since it’s not a good year for the GOP brand in general. You want a guy, like me, John McCain in the White House because history has proven that divided government works best. It’s the best form of checks and balances against either political party.”
4:42 pm
headhunt,
That dog won’t hunt. Right or wrong, the American people are going to dump this problem into the Republicans laps. They were in charge for the last 8 years, including 6 years in which they were in complete control.
Trying to say it is all the Democrats’ fault is not going work.
4:54 pm
Flyer –
I agree – it is an uphill battle for the Republicans, but the facts are the facts. McCain needs to say:
“This mess is the culmination of a well meaning, but ultimately irresponsible effort to allow people you wouldn’t lend $200 to buy $300K houses. These are people with less than 5% down payments, incomes which couldn’t make payments after the ARMs expired, and sketchy credit histories. Now, if someone believes that the bankers were the driving force to make these loans, so they could, in 2 years, spend $70k to foreclose on the mortgage, they can. But the truth is Congress created goals tied to government largess which encouraged banks to make these loans because Congress wanted to increase home ownership amongst certain groups. Does that sound Republican or Democrat to you?”
6:09 pm
McCain needs to come out swinging tonight… If Obama can say he is taking off the gloves so should McCain. I am a Democrat who will be voting for McCain Palin this time around. I am so sick and tired of hearing about Obama. He is the extreme left. He is not mainstream and associated with radicals. There is no way this guy could pass a background check to receive a government clearance. The list of his friends (even Pakistani) roommate would throw him off any clearance list. Period. So why would we want a person who associates with Ayers, Farrakahn, Rev. Wright, Rashind Kalid, and his unknown Pakistani friend who he won’t talk about from college?????
This guy is too radical for even a mainstream Democrat like myself. Voting for Obama will put lead us to socialism…. within a year.
5:29 am
I’d say your assessment on the economy is on par with mccain. Krugman nails it and today could be a black wednesday as world markets crash. asian markets already did. CDO’s, derivatives and the fact that none of it has any oversight gave us what many anticipated. unchecked geed leading to market failure. thanh you republicanism and thank you mccain for making GOP a dead brand.
How does it feel to hope for catastrophe so your man wins? You are fairly shaking with excitement at the prospect of a crash. You probably smiled as you wrote those words above.
Reminds me of liberals on Iraq. Every piece of bad news was cheered by you guys. Same thing here.
You’re despicable.
ed.
9:10 am
I feel like the media will insure Obama is elected even if it means looking the other way where these suspicious connections are concerned. Note the recent headlines attacking Palin as racist for daring to point out any connection with Ayers. It’s obvious that attacking Palin is fair game, but they won’t dare turn that same scrutiny on Obama.
A lot of my friends are so used to hearing the same old CNN storyline that it never occurs to them that the things McCain and Palin are saying are TRUE… and so I think the media has done its job. It has made the truth seem like lunacy, and lies look like truth. That’s why I think this election is lost. We might as well just hand in the towel.
I’m preparing myself for an Obama presidency, but its going to be sickening watching the media finally go into these stories with a rabid curiosity in 2009 when it is safe to do so and gives them better ratings. Sick, just sick!
10:22 am
Every Democrat that ever ran for office has been portrayed by the right as a bomb throwing leftist. I can guarantee you that this charge, even if true, will be ignored as just another right wing kool aid induced rant. Same thing for the guilt by association charges from the Democrats for that matter. Anyone that has had a life can look back and find someone unsavory that they knew, the charge that you are some fellow traveler with anyone you have ever associated with is nonsense for most people.
I voted for Bush and the Republicans thinking I would get a reduction in government and fiscal responsibility. What I got was the K street project and the Rove plan of earmark deficit spending in key districts to win elections. The Republican party is as much a party of the big lies as the Democrats. The Republicans can blame this on the media all they want, but only by loosing this election is there any hope that they will stop the blame game and look in the mirror to find the real reason for this shift.
11:20 am
Chuck Tucson Said:
Meh. Going on about the media again. That’s great. Consider though that your party has made voters NOT CARE what we’re going to get, as long as it’s not what we currently have. I place the rise of Obama entirely on the shoulders of the Republican Party. Congratulations, he’s your fault.
Exactly. Obama will be the Bush legacy.
11:22 am
Of course…Bush was the Clinton legacy. If things keep going in this direction I shudder to think what the Obama legacy will bring.
12:16 pm
heh. at this point, Bill Clinton’s presidency looks like an f’ing utopia. Yeah, I did just said that.
12:09 pm
First Obama claims that over a TWENTY YEAR period, he never heard a single anti-American racist sermon from Jeremiah Wright … never noticed the anti-American racist literature in the church’s lobby … never agreed to the ‘Black Values System’ that all the church members swore to … never subscribed to the Marxist ‘Black Separation Theology’ espoused on the church’s website … never knew anti-American racist Louis Farrakhan, who the church awarded a life time achievement award to … and, never knew unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, when Obama launched his campaign from Ayer’s living room, sat on a board together, and whose wives worked at the same law firm http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2008/10/devastating_vid.php
. Obama also worked with Acorn, who has been caught in massive voter fraud, in behalf of Obama. Obama obviously shares an anti-American racist, and criminal philosophy with some very unsavory people, continues to lie about it, and does not have the character, or integrity to be President of the United States of America
2:28 pm
The only voters not outraged by the Obama/Ayers ties, and Obama having been a member of the Socialist party in the 90’s are his die-hard supporters. Other voters are more outraged by the thought that America will move from a Democracy to Socialism if Obama is voted in. I know my whole family (82 of us here in New York and 47 more around the nation) want these stories looked into at least as much as the stories on Palin were reported by the mainstream media. The adoration crap of Obama was scary enough with little kids singing his praises and teens dressed in military garb chanting about him, add to that the fact that MSM refuses to report any negatives about him, any critics are silenced by playing the race card, and his ties to radical liberals, questions remaining about his past (school records, school loans, the al-Mansour/Alwaleed bin Talal connection, ACORN and voter fraud), this is one scary guy, he hasn’t been honest with us about any of the above, and I can’t pull the lever for him on election day until I get a feel for the guy other than this feeling of ~ “Dear Leader” Heil!!
4:03 pm
I’m an independent voter that both my fiance and I voted for Bush, we’re now supporting Obama since his policies are for more detailed and all around better than McCain’s. In all honesty we could give a crap about Bill Ayer’s! In fact it turns off independent voters, the only people it impresses is the conservative base, but McCain is supposed to be appealing to voters like me and my fiance, we hate negative smear campaigning.
I really am sick of people saying that bringing up Obama’s friendship with a radical self described communist who is glad he set off bombs is a “smear.” A smear is a false charge. There is nothing false about Obama not only associating with this twerp but actually helping him in his efforts to radicalize the chicago school system.
So go on, be ignorant. Be complacent. Close your eyes to Ayers, Wright, Pfleger, Meeks, Khalidi, Rezko and the rest. There is no politician in America with so many radicals as friends. His “detailed” policies – that you are too stupid to recognize as standard political pablum – will be thrown uinder the bus with the rest of the inconvenient truths about this guy and his thuggish, brutish mob will turn this country into something that even an ignoramus like you wouldn’t recognize.
ed.