This is the Presidential Campaign Thread.

Barack Obama Vs. John McCain.

Edited November 6, 200817 yr by Toups

I am a bit disturbed people would not vote for Obama based on the fact he is a perceived assassination target.

Alot of older black Americans were scared to vote for him for that very reason.

The Republicans had their chance look what they done when they ran the House & Senate when Bill Clinton was President. Clinton could do anything he really wanted to do.

when need Democratic House & Senate & if we can get the President too.

some Republicans are very smalled minded.

I am a bit disturbed people would not vote for Obama based on the fact he is a perceived assassination target.

ITA. I think people should look at what they want in a candidate and not what they think might happen to that person if elected. Life is filled with possibilities and you can't protect or keep anyone from his/her fate no matter what it is.

You know, I wonder if Stevens gets re-elected and expelled if Palin would appoint herself to the Senate.

Can you appoint yourself? There have obviously been times where governors have had to appoint senators. But is there a history of anybody appointing themselves?

I think right now we need a government that is not split. We are in a mess right now and I want Congress to work together to get it fixed. Look at what happened with the bailout bill. It turned into a pork farm. Maybe the public is sending a message that we want change across the board, and that perhaps that means one-party government for a while. It's interesting, McCain is arguing for divided government. Through much of Bush's term as president, the Rs controlled all three branches. They failed. Let's see if the D's can do it a little better.

I believe that government can work together with persons of different parties in power. Call me naive, but I think it can be done. The fact of the matter is that if Obama is elected President and the Dem's have a larger control of both houses of Congress, the only way they will be successful is to govern from the center. Especially Obama. Mind you, I'm as liberal as they come. But for the sake of the country, this should be where they begin IMHO. Clinton was a popular president (before Monica) for his abilities to work with persons from both parties. Bush promised to be a "uniter, not a divider" and did the exact opposite. We need a president that can work with everyone, not just members of his own party. I believe Obama is that person.

I am a bit disturbed people would not vote for Obama based on the fact he is a perceived assassination target.

Alot of older black Americans were scared to vote for him for that very reason.

I don't think any of my friends have decided not to vote for Obama based on the risk to his life. It's simply that they have expressed concern for the man and his family (and the country) were something terrible to happen to him. And let's face it. It is a real threat, as those crazy redneck skinheads prove.

Have y'all seen this trash? It's from a local TV station here in Orlando. I don't watch this one, and because of this clip, I never will.

WFTV Interview with Joe Biden

There's also another link there that shows the questions she asked of John McCain. Barbara West wasn't nearly as harsh with him as she was with Biden, inferring that Obama is a Marxist! I hear that the Obama campaign has canceled an upcoming interview that was scheduled with WFTV and Michelle Obama based on how Biden was treated. I don't blame them! Maybe Barbara West wants a job over on Fox.

Can you appoint yourself? There have obviously been times where governors have had to appoint senators. But is there a history of anybody appointing themselves?

I think she would find a away to appoint herself. She definetely seems to like the national politics scene. This would be a way to keep her in the forefront.

In regards to the Obama threat. I too have had the fear that something would happen to Obama if elected president. However, that won't stop me from voting for him.

On a more positive note, my daughters (who are infinitely more conservative then me) have had their eyes opened regarding our prop 8. They were yes people, but after informative conversations from me and their aunts, they have become no people. They were not aware of all that the prop entailed and once they realized what it was all about decided to vote no. Just goes to show you a little more knowledge goes a long way.

I believe that government can work together with persons of different parties in power. Call me naive, but I think it can be done. The fact of the matter is that if Obama is elected President and the Dem's have a larger control of both houses of Congress, the only way they will be successful is to govern from the center. Especially Obama. Mind you, I'm as liberal as they come. But for the sake of the country, this should be where they begin IMHO. Clinton was a popular president (before Monica) for his abilities to work with persons from both parties. Bush promised to be a "uniter, not a divider" and did the exact opposite. We need a president that can work with everyone, not just members of his own party. I believe Obama is that person.

I don't think any of my friends have decided not to vote for Obama based on the risk to his life. It's simply that they have expressed concern for the man and his family (and the country) were something terrible to happen to him. And let's face it. It is a real threat, as those crazy redneck skinheads prove.

Have y'all seen this trash? It's from a local TV station here in Orlando. I don't watch this one, and because of this clip, I never will.

WFTV Interview with Joe Biden

There's also another link there that shows the questions she asked of John McCain. Barbara West wasn't nearly as harsh with him as she was with Biden, inferring that Obama is a Marxist! I hear that the Obama campaign has canceled an upcoming interview that was scheduled with WFTV and Michelle Obama based on how Biden was treated. I don't blame them! Maybe Barbara West wants a job over on Fox.

I believe this woman's husband was a big mucky-muck in the GOP in Fla. She is the health reporter at the station. Many believe that he probably fed her the questions.Talk about a "gotcha" interview. All this marxist, socialist. communist stuff is ridiculous, but some people only listen to the sound bites. I have had a lot of Q&A with people regarding this. If people would look deeper into the policies of the candidates, they would get the info they need, I still can't believe that McCain is still insisting that Obama plans on raising taxes.

On a more positive note, my daughters (who are infinitely more conservative then me) have had their eyes opened regarding our prop 8. They were yes people, but after informative conversations from me and their aunts, they have become no people. They were not aware of all that the prop entailed and once they realized what it was all about decided to vote no. Just goes to show you a little more knowledge goes a long way.

That is good news, UCLAN. Glad to hear it.

I believe this woman's husband was a big mucky-muck in the GOP in Fla. She is the health reporter at the station. Many believe that he probably fed her the questions.Talk about a "gotcha" interview. All this marxist, socialist. communist stuff is ridiculous, but some people only listen to the sound bites. I have had a lot of Q&A with people regarding this. If people would look deeper into the policies of the candidates, they would get the info they need, I still can't believe that McCain is still insisting that Obama plans on raising taxes.

McCain will say anything about Obama that his campaign believes "has legs", so to speak. The traditional "tax and spend" scare tactic that the right uses against the Dems is all they have left. They have thrown everything they can at Obama and nothing worked, so they are probably figuring they might as well roll out this old argument.

I'm hoping that the electorate is better informed than to believe this obvious falsehood. We've had 3 debates, wherein Obama clearly stated his plan so it should be clear to anyone that's paying attention.

BTW, I just read that McCain and Palin are asking Stevens to step down. Could this be the first step in Palin's plan to enter to Senate? I have never heard of a govenor appointing themselves either, but I wouldn't put anything past her.

I don't think that Palin would appoint herself.

However, what they could do if the McCain gets beat and Stevens steps down is have Palin resign as Governor. This would make Lt. Governor Sean Parnell Alaska's new Governor. Then he could appoint Palin to the U.S. Senate.

It may sound far-fetched, but I think it is plausible, given the Republican Party these days.

GOP takes out loan to help Senate candidates

Associated Press/AP Online

WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee is taking out a $5 million line of credit to help Senate Republican incumbents who are facing re-election difficulties.

The national party committee plans to give $2 million directly to the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the final days before the Nov. 4 elections, party officials said Tuesday. It also plans to spend $3 million in coordination with several Senate Republican campaigns. Officials would not disclose which races they intend to assist with the money. At least eight Republican-held seats could switch to the Democratic Party, according to polls. The NRSC has been outspent by its Democratic Party counterpart. It also has been short of cash to give a hand to its troubled candidates.

Edited October 28, 200817 yr by Wales2004

The Christian Right Killed the Republican Party

Jane Devin

When Ronald Reagan began courting the religious right in his bid to win the Presidency, I doubt he knew he was spelling death to the lean tenets of Goldwater conservatism. Yet soon afterward, under the thumb of right-wing religion, the Republican party became a bloated fool, stuffed with hypocrisy, greed, and anti-intellectualism. In 2008, the price is being paid through lost elections and a loss of public trust.While Bush railed about the axis of evil, there was another axis that gathered steam during the Reagan years. The Moral Majority, Focus on the Family, and The Christian Coalition were all formed within years of each other as religiopolitical groups. Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and Pat Robertson, the respective leaders of these movements, formed a triad that sought to influence politics through a gospel of neo-conservative Christian rhetoric aimed at millions of faithful adherents whose votes, it was hoped, could swing the socio-political pendulum away from progress and back to "traditional values."

In order to win the votes of the triad's faithful followers, Republican politicians bartered themselves into a hear-no-wrong, see-no-wrong trade-off. This trade-off allowed Falwell to hold sway with politicians, and appear as a respected political pundit on right-wing shows, even after outlandishly insisting that the purple Tinky Winky children's character was gay, or that the anti-Christ was coming in the form of a Jew. He could promote the idea of ending the public school system in favor of church-run schools, as he did in his book, America Can Be Saved, yet still wield considerable influence in Washington.

In trading endorsements for blindness, Pat Robertson could say that feminism "is a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians" -- and even suggest that a nuclear device should be used to blow up the State Department -- yet Senators and other politicians would still appear on his CBN network, even after other controversies, such as the use of Operation Blessing planes for mining activities, splintered his Coalition.

Republican politicians continued to cater to James Dobson even after he distorted the research of scientists to promote his anti-gay agenda in Time magazine. Dobson, who operates several non-profits, has used millions in tax-free donations to try to influence nominations for the Supreme Court and to subvert the First Amendment separation of church and State, but legislators, rather than reining in the 800-pound gorilla, quaked under threat of being targeted by Dobson's political media machine.

There was a mutuality to the trade-off between the Christian right and its adopted Republican politicians. In exchange for being given credibility and influence in Washington, the triad and their various branches would justify the intrusive Patriot Act, torture at Guantanamo Bay, and massive governmental debt to their audience of millions -- if politicians would stand against Roe v. Wade. They wouldn't make a stink about outrageously expensive no-bid contracts -- if it meant that their "faith-based" charities could get governmental grants. They would support war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 -- if politicians went on the record against same-sex marriage.

The would ignore or excuse the fact that a large percentage of corporations paid no taxes at all -- if it meant no new taxes for them. They'd support Bush even as he misled the public about weapons of mass destruction, and they'd excuse the unethical actions of henchmen like Rove and Libby -- if it meant that school vouchers would be put on the agenda.

Working in tandem with their pocketed politicians, the Christian right would rejoice at the FCC's repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, which gave rise to a slew of unchecked right-wing programs that hawked the myth of a vast "liberal media", even as markets narrowed and became dominated by a handful of corporations.

Right-wing provocateurs like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh were encouraged to truck in fear, loathing, and controversy, mirroring the religious right's mission to divide the country into red/blue, good/evil, conservative/liberal, Christian/un-Christian factions. There was no room for the moderate middle in this "with us or against us" equation, as witnessed by the public shredding of moderate Republican politicians like Arlen Specter, a Jew, and a vocal critic of the Christian right. "What some are trying to do is take over the party," Specter warned in 1994. "That's bad for the Republican Party and bad for the country." Specter became a target of the religious right for his support of Roe v. Wade, and his refusal to bend to the will of religious power brokers like Dobson, who attempted to use his influence to block Specter's 2005 bid to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Today, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are among two of the more prominent Republican figures that have become mouthpieces for the religious right. Their attempts to split a diverse, multi-cultural country into "pro-America" and "anti-America" factions have left little doubt who is to be considered patriotic and who is not. Those who are right-wing Christians -- anti-abortion, anti-feminism, anti-gay, anti-evolution, anti-taxes, pro-gun, and pro-deregulation -- and who are willing to ignore or justify massive governmental debt, corporate welfare, bank nationalization, unjustified war, falling markets, depleted retirement accounts, record foreclosures, government spying, broken treaties, torture, the impingement of a free press, the subversion of the First Amendment, the hiding of official records, the missing millions from Halliburton, and more - are patriotic. Everyone else is not.

Barry Goldwater once said that he was "sick and tired of the political preachers" that tried to dictate his morality.

"And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."

Goldwater, I think, would be rolling in his grave at the hijacking of his party by religious fundamentalists. It remains to be seen if the Republican party can recover from its long and seedy affair with the extreme right, but there is no doubt that many socially moderate, fiscally conservative Republicans are waiting for a leadership that is driven more by Goldwater ethics than by the bogeyman of a separatist, neo-con God.

Can you appoint yourself? There have obviously been times where governors have had to appoint senators. But is there a history of anybody appointing themselves?

If he is re-elected and then either steps aside or is impeached, the governor will appoint someone to fill out his term. She could appoint herself. I think what Gregg said is more plausible. She would resign and then the Lite Gov would assume the power of office and appoint her.

I think Palin wants to emerge as the leader of the party and the best way to do that is in the Senate. A governor in Alaska is not very high profile. JMO.

If he is re-elected and then either steps aside or is impeached, the governor will appoint someone to fill out his term. She could appoint herself. I think what Gregg said is more plausible. She would resign and then the Lite Gov would assume the power of office and appoint her.

Oh ok. I didn't think about going that route.

Read something on a website that there would be a special election. And she could run in that.

I just think it'll say something bad about our country if people will still elected Ted.

Edited October 29, 200817 yr by bandbfan

Oh ok. I didn't think about going that route.

Read something on a website that there would be a special election. And she could run in that.

I just think it'll say something bad about our country if people will still elected Ted.

I think it does too. Perhaps the appointment would only serve until a special election. That would make more sense. Was that web site speculating that she would run? It just seems like being in the Senate would be more high profile.

If Stevens is elected and expelled from the Senate, Palin can't appoint herself, in fact she can't appoint anyone. After a previous Governor appointed his daughter to a Senate seat, Alaska changed the law to where the Governor isn't allowed to appoint a replacement for a Senate vacancy, there has to be a special election. I doubt Stevens will be reelected though, he's a convicted felon now.