John McCain: Psychic

I couldn't help but shake my head when I read about John McCain's campaign releasing an ad declaring him the victor of tonight's debate - even before he said that was actually going to attend the debate.

Gee, John, if you had a psychic on your team, couldn't they have told you that suspending your campaign wasn't going to be such a great idea?

Economic Crisis or a Political One?

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard: John McCain will be suspending his presidential campaign some time tomorrow in order to focus on the proposed legislation for bailing out Wall Street. As part of his campaign suspension, he is also pulling out of the long-scheduled and anticipated debate with Barack Obama on Friday, and his campaign has mentioned the desire to postpone the vice-presidential debate, slated for next week, until an undetermined time.

If someone tried to make this up and sell it as a movie script, it would be deemed a fantasy. It is just that out there.

For one, McCain has been absent from the Senate since April 2008. Up until today, he has felt no apparent sense of urgency about getting back to the role of being senator, and the Senate, for its part, does not seem to have ground to a halt. In addition, McCain is on neither the Joint Congressional Economic Committee nor the Senate Banking Committee. He has admitted that economics is not his forte. He has a long and storied history (up and until some time last week) of being a champion of deregulation. So why exactly is his input so direly needed at this juncture? He hasn't been at the hearings, hell, as of yesterday, he hadn't even "examined" the bailout package proposal. Realistically, what does he have to add to the mix that is so important that he needs to miss a presidential debate? I mean, seriously. Is his input even going to be helpful? For a hardcore deregulator to turn around and try to write economic regulations would be like a fundamental Muslim trying to write a Papal encyclical! It makes no sense!

Second, the news of the Wall Street crisis and talks about a bailout hit last week. Last week. Where was McCain's sense of urgency and duty then? Why didn't he come off the campaign trail at that time and rush to Washington so that others could learn the fundamentals of economics at his knee? Couldn't he have skipped his rally in Minnesota on Friday? Or how about his rally in Pennsylvannia on Monday? Why now? Especially now that there are so many questions about his campaign, and more specifically, his campaign manager, Rick Davis. And if the crisis was so urgent, why didn't he fly back to Washington immediately after making his announcement today? Why stay in New York for an interview with Katie Couric and to give a speech tomorrow morning? It doesn't add up.

Third, the McCain campaign wants to postpone the vice-presidential debate. Seriously? Why is that exactly? Sarah Palin has absolutely no role in Congress. She is not needed there to work through the details of the bailout. So why postpone her debate if Joe Biden is ready to go forward with it? I mean, Sarah Palin has had zero - count `em - zero press conferences since becoming the Republican vice-presidential nominee. The amount of interviews she has given can be counted on one hand. For someone who could potentially become the next president of the United States, there has been very little opportunity to see whether she can truly pass muster. And that is frightening. If she is, as the McCain campaign has stated, ready to lead on Day 1, then why isn't she ready to debate next week?

The move reminds of an action that I am sure many people have done at one time or another. It's the "dog-at-my-homework" move. I remember being in high school and not being prepared for a test, so instead of showing up and failing my test, I used the good ole "I'm sick" routine to buy more time. I've been there, really. But the difference was, I was in high school and the only one who was really affected was me. I wasn't a 72-year-old adult vying for the highest office in the land. I mean, once I became an adult and had real responsibilities, I didn't shirk them in that way. And would hope that someone who wants to guide our country for the next 4 years would have more integrity and gumption than to pull something like this.

Honestly, Senator McCain, it seems that the pressing crisis of the moment is more a political one than an economic one. The only reason you're worried about the economy is because the economic crisis is causing a political crisis for your poll numbers.

Fear and Loathing in Lake Norman

Another night, another phone bank for Barack Obama's campaign. Seeing as how the Lake Norman area tends to be, for lack of a better word, less diverse than the city of Charlotte to the south, I understand that my hours of phone banking are likely to yield few Obama supporters. Most of the Obama supporters in this area have already been identified, leaving us phone bankers to pick through those voters who have classified themselves as unaffiliated with any political party. It is a thankless job, really - calling people up, interrupting their busy lives to ask them about what has become an increasingly ugly election season. Most people don't want to talk about it, which I can totally respect, and more often than not, these people are quite polite but firm about not wishing to continue their phone conversation with me. Doesn't really hurt my feelings...eh, okay, maybe just a little. As long as they are polite, I don't feel too bad.

And then there are the not-so-polite ones. The ones who, rather than tell me that they simply don't want to talk to me, would rather say rude things. Like a certain young fellow I had the luck of calling tonight.

A.L., as I will call him, is an apparently lovely young man who lives in Cornelius and has a healthy vocabulary and an incredibly polite conversational manner. Upon hearing the name "Obama" pass my lips this evening, he responded by yelling into the phone: "F*ck you, I'm not voting for that n*gg*r." He then punctuated his response by hanging up on me.

Word to the wise, A.L. and others with your impeccable manners: I, like other phone bankers, do not have a random number machine dialing the phone numbers for me. I have a sheet of paper, obtained from the registrar of voters, that gives me details about you: your name, your age, your political affiliation, your phone number. And your address. Yeah, your address. And guess what - chances are, your friendly phone banker doesn't live all that far away from you. As luck would have it, I live within 3 miles of our upstanding young citizen A.L. Luckily for him, I am far more bitchy and antagonistic on the computer than I am in real life, so I will just chalk up our encounter and his amazingly bigoted insult to be an interesting anecdote to share on my blog and and at cocktail parties in the future. A different person, however, might not be on such an even-keel.

*sigh* When did manners fall so far out of fashion? Darn that rock n'roll!!!

Voter Deception, Republican-style

It's probably pretty obvious that I tend to vote Democrat. What, with having been a registered Democrat in the various states I have lived in, having volunteered for different campaigns, and having donated money on more than one instance to a Democratic campaign or cause. So, imagine my surprise when I went to my mailbox today and found a "vote-by-mail application" addressed to my family from the Republican National Committee. I mean, why on Earth would the RNC be spending their money trying to get a solid-blue house to vote in an election? Both my husband and I registered as Democrats when we got our licenses in North Carolina in May - that type of information is easily gained by a campaign.



I opened up the mailer and saw two parts attached to each other. One part was, ostensibly, the directions for requesting a ballot: "Vote Early By Mail; It's as Easy as 1. Each voter should complete and sign a card. 2. Place your stamp on it. 3. Drop it in the nearest mailbox. Request your vote-by-mail ballot today." The second part was a pocket (which doubles as an envelope) with a ballot request form for (wait for it) Virginia. Yes, Virginia. Even though the RNC mailer was addressed to our North Carolina address, the form inside was for Virginia. And the address on the return envelope, the envelope that will take your ballot request to the registrar of voters? It was for Chesterfield County, Virginia - the county where we used to live.



Honest mistake? How? The RNC mailer was correctly addressed to us in North Carolina, using our name. The return envelope was addressed to the Electoral Board in the county we used to live in Virginia - there was certainly no mistake about that!

I had been reading on various blogs about voter deception through the use of misaddressed ballot requests and registrations. But with so little being reported in the mainstream media, it was hard to say decisively that anything fishy was going on. Other moms I am acquainted with in Iredell County, North Carolina had received ballot request mailers from the RNC, and they stated that theirs were addressed correctly. Clearly, nothing could be amiss, right?

Of course, those individuals also happen to be Republicans. And myself? I am on the record as having donated to the Kerry campaign in 2004.

Not exactly the kind of person who is likely to vote for McCain in 2008, hmm?

Of course, I easily caught what was going on. So, no harm, no foul, right? What about people who might not be as aware of the deception going on? What about people who might not think to question the validity of the material they received? Aahhh...

In an election where every vote counts, where both North Carolina and Virginia may become blue, anything that takes out likely voters for the opposition is going to help your candidate win the electoral votes, isn't it?

The Republican National Committee: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.

So Close, yet So Far Away

Today, Sen. Obama came to Charlotte and spoke at a rally. Having missed both Joe Biden and Michelle Obama's visits over the past week, the hub-unit and I were excited about the possibility of seeing Obama speak, live and in-person. We packed up the toddler and went downtown (arriving later than I would have liked to, but we won't discuss the reasons for that *cough*unscheduled McDonalds stop*cough*) and stood in line for 2.5 hours...to no avail. We were still several blocks away from the entrance when we heard the unmistakable sound of Barack Obama's voice over downtown, punctuated by the disappointed groans of those in line around us. One lady in front of us burst in tears because she was so disappointed. Even though Sen. Obama spoke for 30 minutes, we did not get into the venue. Estimates indicate that close to 20,000 people were inside the security when he started speaking, while at least 5,000 to 10,000 were outside.

While we were extremely bummed about missing the chance to see Obama speak, I have to say that we were thrilled by the turnout. It was amazing and exciting to be a part of such a diverse and enthusiastic group. It really made everyone feel as though "Yes, we can!"

A Question of Honor

For a candidate like McCain, who cannot run on his recent voting record nor on the issues, running on personality and character is about the only way to go. Over and over, he and his surrogates have stated that he is a man of honor and integrity. However, his actions contradict those words. The level of distortion and lying within his campaign have reached the level where even Karl Rove has said that McCain's ads do not pass the truth test. When you have Karl Rove questioning the truthfulness of your ads, something ain't right. As someone who is tired of the bald-faced lies being presented over and over again as the truth, I am glad that the Obama campaign is finally hitting back - and with the truth.




And follow up that one, the DNC has a new site, Count the Lies, designed to track the number of times the media calls out McCain and Palin on their lies (which, up until the ladies from The View took up the call, hasn't been very frequent).

I expect that website to get very large.

Quick Wrap-up

Ok, it's late, I have family in town, and I'm going on vacation Friday...Here are some links (I wish I had the time to break the down) that I have been enjoying today. I hope I will get a minute tomorrow to go over some of the speeches from the RNC today...I had an enjoyable time shouting at my screen during the broadcasts!



A scathing opinion of Sarah Palin from a Wasilla resident.

A Washington Post article on the last-minute vetting of Palin

McCain's Straight Talk only applies when he's not being asked tough questions...threaten to ask tough questions, and he'll cancel his interview with you!

And my personal favorite for today:

Republican speechwriter Peggy Noonan and former McCain strategist Mike Murphy tell us what they really think about the McCain campaign and the Palin pick (thanks to a couple of hot mics that they thought were not on)

Tucker Bounds gets Bound Up

Have you seen the CNN clip of Campbell Brown attempting to get McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds to answer a question about Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience? You know, the Vice Presidential candidate who admitted that she hadn't kept up with the war in Iraq in 2007, which happened to be the same year she first got a passport. It's a classic already!

Reality Bites

Sometimes it even bites us in the ass. Just ask Sarah Palin.

Mrs. Palin, a supporter of abstinence-only education, has just announced that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter, Bristol, is 5 months pregnant. Considering that proponents of abstinence-only education say that it is superior to safer-sex education because it teaches the morality of waiting until marriage to have sex and encourages teenagers to have sex, should we just consider Bristol to be an anomaly? Or is she a victim of a program that has been shown to be ineffective and is being pushed by those more interested in pushing religion rather than trying to protect and educate our children?

In the statement released by Mrs. Palin's campaign, she said, "We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents." They are proud of her decision? Why does the minor, Bristol, even get to make a decision when no other woman in the United States would get to make a decision about their unplanned pregnancy if anti-choice Sarah Palin got her way? Why does Palin's daughter get a choice when the rest of us won't? What makes her so special?

Hey, Sarah, how does it feel when the shoe's on the other foot? Not quite so easy to walk the walk, is it?