There are a fair number of commentators out there who think Obama is nothing more than a reaction to 8 years of George W. Bush.  What I want to know is… How can I get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to make such obvious observations?  Certainly 8 years of Bush has left the country in the mood for something, ANYTHING, different, but it took a candidate like Barack Obama to step up and articulate his message in a way that resonates with the voting public.  Past candidates like John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, or even Hillary Clinton, could not have inspired the voters the way Obama has.

Now it falls on Obama to lead.  Inspiration is only part of the equation, now he has to execute.  Fortunately, if we can extrapolate from how his campaign was run, he appears to be an effective organizer.  Set up your organization and then let your people do what you hired them to do.  That is why close attention will be paid to his initial appointments.  There have been no surprises in his staff choices, most of whom are Democratic party veterans with ties to Chicago. (In other words, people he knows well and can work with.)  These positions are not the time or place for him to “reach across the aisle” as he needs people who can march in lock step with what he has in mind and who are familiar with Obama’s leadership style.

The cabinet appointments, however, will be far more interesting.  A cynic might come up with the idea that he would tap a Republican Senator or two (especially one who’s state has a Democratic governor) for a cabinet post.  This would be an obvious Machiavellian move to tilt power in the Senate further towards the Democratic party, but the Republicans are in the unenviable position of looking bad (and partisan) if they refuse.  Here is a list of Senators who fall into that category, in case you were wondering.

• John Kyl – Arizona
• Wayne Allard – Colroado
• Chuck Grassley – Iowa
• Sam Brownback – Kansas
• Pat Roberts – Kansas
• Jim Bunning – Kentucky
• Mitch McConnell – Kentucky
• Olympia Snowe – Maine
• Susan Collins – Maine
• Judd Gregg – New Hampshire
• Richard Burr – North Carolina
• George Voinovich – Ohio
• Jim Inhofe – Oklahoma
• Tom Coburn – Oklahoma
• Gordon Smith – Oregon
• Arlen Specter – Pennsylvania
• Lamar Alexander – Tennessee
• Bob Corker – Tennessee
• Mike Enzi – Wyoming
• John Barrasso – Wyoming

Last, and most certainly not least…

• John McCain – Arizona

Obviously, the Obama transition team is more familiar with these Senators than I am, but if I had to guess, some senators would be elimated from consideration because they are too partisanly Republican to work well with an Obama administration (Arlen Specter comes to mind immediately).  Others would be eliminated because they have shown a willingness to buck the Republican party line on occasion, particularly with respect to fillibuster votes. (Olympia Snowe, for example)

Possible targets, if I were making the list, would be Lamar Alexander (former Secretary of Education under Bush 41) or Sam Brownback (who has expressed Presidential ambitions, and has self-imposed a term limit on himself so that he will not seek re-election to the Senate in 2010).

This would not be a strategy that you could apply more than once within the Senate or House, but it would satisfy Republicans that the Obama administration is, in fact, willing to reach across the aisle, while simultaneously benefitting the Democrats by tilting the advantage by a vote or two back towards themselves.  In a Senate that appears to be split (results aren’t in for a few races, Georgia has a run-off election scheduled for December 2nd.)  58-40 with two “Independents”, that could be an extremely important vote.

There is a common theme in all of the coverage I’ve seen.  Reactions in Europe, the Middle East, Black America, White America, and Latin America all focus on one theme.  Hope.  There is something magical about believing in an idea.  The belief that you are truly witnessing the dawn of a new day.

Barack Obama captured the moment very well in his victory speech.  Even John McCain recognized the moment and delivered one of the warmest speeches of his campaign.  There were celebrations as far away as Kenya.  I saw blacks, whites, latinos, men, women, young and old all eagerly showing hope that today was a new day in this country.

Tomorrow morning, nothing will change.  The same issues that existed yesterday will exist tomorrow.  However, the first step to fixing it is believing that you can fix it.  Today, I saw a country believe in itself once again.

President Obama has a lot of work ahead of him if he is going to back up that belief and turn it into action.

Good luck and congratulations Mr. President-Elect.  May your hand remain steady on the helm, and may you be the leader we can all be proud of.

That said, a couple of things have happened recently that have made me rethink my opinion.

For starters, about 40 call center employees in Indiana walked off the job rather than read a prepared script bashing Barack Obama for things like:

• Electing Barack Obama will put your children in danger
• Barack Obama is soft on crime
• Coddling criminals and putting them on the streets early

Willie Horton, there is a call for you on the white (fear) courtesy phone!

Of course, the only reason they were asked to read this script was because it illegal to robo-call in the state of Indiana.  If you’d like to hear the ad as it ran in other states, here you go.

If you don’t feel like listening…

Hello, I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC, because Democrats are dangerously weak on crime. Barack Obama has voted against tougher penalties for street gangs, drug-related crimes, and protecting children from danger. Barack Obama and his liberal allies have a disturbing history of coddling criminals. so we can’t trust their judgment to keep our families safe. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and McCain-Palin 2008 at 866 558-5591. Thank you, bye

Hey Senator McCain, if minimum wage phone monkeys can see through your bullshit, how well do you think this is going to play with the rest of the country?  Maybe you could outsource the calls to India since they neither know, nor care, about you or the American public.

Think about this for a minute, telemarketing is one of the slimiest professions known to man, even prostitution is more honest about what it is than a telemarketer who calls during dinner asking to speak to Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so about something “REALLY important”.  If these guys are saying “No thanks, I have standards.” to your message, then maybe you should re-think the message.

Maybe if you were more like this guy, you could have Sarah Palin do something useful for your campaign.

Bravo!  Some McCain supporters with sense chased away some folks who were offering more “Obama is a Muslim” rhetoric at a McCain/Palin rally.  I have been a very loud voice in bashing the bigots among us, but it makes me hopeful that there are those who support McCain who will not stand for this foolishness.  It pleased me even more to see a representative of the McCain campaign flatly state that they do not want these bigots and their so called “support” in the upcoming election.

Kudos to you, Woodbridge, Virginia!

Greetings from a former Dittohead.  Back in the early 90′s, I was an avid listener to your radio show.  I thoroughly enjoyed your sense of humor and your willingness to lampoon and annoy politicians and public figures that took themselves and their causes a little too seriously.  I embraced your brand of conservatism that held the idea that Americans could look out for themselves without the help of Big Government.  I was 21 years old and in college.  I didn’t need Government to help me get anywhere and I didn’t see how anyone else did.

Then I grew up.

When I was in college, I believed that the decisions and agreements that individuals made were the result of negotiations between two equal parties.  I believed that people made decisions based on rational self interest.  I believed that getting a job was just a matter of performing work for an employer to the best of my ability in exchange for a salary.  I believed that it was in the company’s best interest to look out their employees because the employees looked out for the company’s best interests.  I believed that buying a house or a car was simply a matter of determining how much you could reasonably afford, then negotiating in good faith with the seller  to buy the house or car that you wanted.  I believed that people were basically honest and fair, and that only a few bad apples were the kind of “bad guys” who made the evening news.

Then I grew up.

I lost a job that I had been in for years because someone else, who had no idea what I did, told the man in charge that he could save money by firing me. (“All he does is… I can do that!“) This very same person was on the phone a week later asking me how to do the very things that were my job responsibility.  I had a house payment and credit cards to pay off, and unemployment insurance (there’s that Government thing again) was the difference between me staying in my house and having to foreclose or even declare bankruptcy.  Government didn’t fix anything for me, but it sure as hell helped.  My employer certainly wasn’t looking out for me.

I eventually picked myself up from that fiasco and became gainfully employed again.  It was time for me to purchase a new car.  I was smart enough to know that car salesmen aren’t the most trustworthy characters, but I had no idea…  We had agreed on a financing package. The interest rate and terms were reasonable and we shook hands.  When I double-checked the paperwork, the terms in the contract were completely different than what we had agreed on.  If I had trusted the handshake deal, I would have been stuck paying an extra year’s worth of payments on a car, paying 5000-6000 dollars more than the car was worth.  I would have had nobody to blame but myself, but it galled me that the person whose hand I had just shaken in agreement would try to rip me off so blatantly.   These are the people who am I supposed to trust without needing the recourse of an effective government?

You see? When I was a dittohead, I didn’t understand what Government did well.  I knew they funded roads and the military, and I knew that everything they touched turned into a monstrous bureaucracy.  What good is Government when it comes to issues like health care, or employment law, or the environment?

Then I learned that rather than being “basically honest and fair”, most people are opportunistic jackals who will steal you blind then sell you a shopping cart to carry around the remainder of your worldly possessions.  Doctors don’t prescribe drugs that are best for you, they push what the drug companies pay them to sell.  Bankers don’t care that you’re out of a home.  They just want to earn 400,000 dollars on a 30 year, 150,000 dollar loan.  Employers don’t care that you have a wife and daughter that you are working to take care of, they just see you as a line on their payroll budget.  If times get tough, they’ll cut (you) and run, taking the remainder of the company’s assets in the form of a golden parachute and leave you twisting in the wind.

Is Government any better?  Not really.  Government bureaucracy is a nightmare of byzantine rules that can result in paying 600 dollars for a toilet seat.  But do you know what the biggest difference between government and the private sector is?  If government does a bad job, I can vote the bastards out every few years.  I can punt them to the street and give the other guy a chance to make things better.  If I get screwed by the corporate conglomerate who tries to weasel their way out of a severance package, or who outsources my job to India in order to make his stock options worth a few more dollars I have no recourse.  I have no leverage.  I have no power.

With power comes responsibility.  I am responsible for learning about the candidates and the issues that are important to them.  I’ve said elsewhere that the only deciding factor for a voter in an election is the answer to the question “Are you better off now than you were…?” and that’s true to an extent.  No candidate agrees with every voter on every issue.  In a two party system, you have a choice to keep going in the same direction or change direction.

Which brings us back to you, Rush.  I can understand why you would not support Barack Obama on one level.  He’s not conservative in any sense of the term.  He is going to expand the power and scope of government, and I understand why that isn’t always a good thing.  On the other hand, how in the world can you support John McCain?  The Bush administration has been one of the worst examples of Big Government run amok in history.  McCain has toed the party line 90% of the time and represents a logical continuation of the last 8 years.  Is this the “get government out of our way” type of government you were looking for when I was young?

I might understand if it were a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils, but your demonization of Obama’s supporters is out of line.  This weekend, I watched a respected former member of the current administration, General Colin Powell, detail his reasons for supporting Barack Obama.  I watched him articulately state the reasons that Obama was a better choice than John McCain.

Then I watched you say “Powell is only supporting Obama because he’s black.”

Then I went back in time a little bit and remembered this bit from your brief stint on ESPN.

Then I went back and found some clips like this one…

Seriously?  Really?

Rush, you have become a caricature of the very worst traits of the Conservative movement.  Instead of acting as a leader for your audience and elevating the debate, you shamelessly pander to the most ignorant and uninformed among us.  You march in front of a mob claiming to lead a great movement, but you spend your time looking over your shoulder to make sure that the crowd is still behind you.  You are the most feckless, callow, and weak talk show host in a crowd of cowards.  The only reason this upsets me at all is that I remember a time when I thought otherwise.

Then I grew up.

BOOGA BOOGA

Thank goodness we found out in time!

It seems that the good folks at In Jesus (Mexican Gay Porn?) have solved the mystery of why a formerly respected Republican “Maverick” has turned into a doddering fool in only 8 short years.

Barack Obama’s family in Kenya is cursing him and Sarah Palin.

I especially like how they refer to Senator Obama as “B. Hussein Obama”.  Nice touch, as if we didn’t quite get the hint that Obama was a “Scary black Muslim who practices witchcraft and is going to kill us all once Satan makes him President of the United God Fearing States of Holy Jesusland.”

Among the more ludicrous claims…

• Obama is 75% Arab and a Muslim. (so which one of Obama’s grandparents is the non-arab?  Would it be the ones from Kenya? or the two who lived in Kansas all their lives?)

• Obama’s cousin, Odinga, wakes up at 3:00 AM every morning to lay a new curse on John McCain and Sarah Palin. (“Hear me mighty mum-fu-fu, spirit of politics!  May Sarah Palin be forced to appear on a weekly comedy show!“)

• Obama’s family are simultaneously Muslim, Satanist, and “Tribal” (Does that mean that Obama finances his campaign from Casino revenues or something?)

• Oprah and her “200 million followers” all support Obama (This one might be close to truth, although I am not sure the number is as low as 200 million.)

• “Dick Morris of Fox News” was sent to Kenya to help Obama’s cousin run for president of the country! (OH THE HU-HANNITY!!!)

I think the most interesting bit of information from these lunatics is that even the rabid Krispy Kristian Koalition thinks that McCain “looks confused and like an idiot”.

There’s a campaign slogan for you.  “John McCain, even the religious nutbags think he’s lost it.”

In case you need a refresher on the circumstances behind Powell’s departure as Secretary of State, the Bush administration forced Powell out because he was frequently at odds with cabinet members such as Donald Rumsfeld.  Powell never went public or spoke negatively about his time in the administration and has consistently taken the high road in all discussions on the matter.  As a result, he has maintained favorable opinion with most of the American public, and his endorsement of Obama is a severe blow to the McCain campaign.

Predictably, McCain has moved to counter the blow by mentioning that every other living Republican former Secretary of State has endorsed Senator McCain.  To paraphrase Chris Farley… La-deee-Fricking-dah.  Republicans endorsing one of their own is no surprise, and frankly, not much of an endorsement.  Is there anyone out there who thinks “Well, Nixon’s Secretary of State endorses McCain.  That’s good enough for me!”

Having a former member of the current administration endorse the candidate from the other party, on the other hand, speaks volumes about the ineptitude of Bush and, by extension, a presumptive McCain administration.

Hey Grim, “Change” isn’t supposed to be an acronym!

Well, a certain 7th grade teacher in Florida would beg to differ.

A Marianna middle-school teacher has been suspended for 10 days without pay after he wrote a racially charged interpretation of a commonly used phrase in the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.

While some parents and community activists were outraged by the actions of Greg Howard, Jackson County NAACP officials want to gather more facts before the group considers taking action. But some parents feel Howard should be fired.

Larry Moore, deputy superintendent for the Jackson County School District, said school officials determined Howard wrote an acronym with an explanation on a dry-erase board in his class Sept. 26 at Marianna Middle School.

It said, “C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected.”

I would like to take a moment and applaud Mr. Howard and salute his courage.  Sure, it would be easy to join in the chorus of folks demanding his head for being a racist prick.  Sure, it would be easy to point out that this redneck has no business being near children, much less teaching them.  Sure, it would be easy to dismiss him as just another member of the inbred-slack jawed-hillbilly-terra cotta toothed-sister fucking-redneck morons in this country who still think that the color of a person’s skin matters when it comes to holding the office of President.

No.  I think more Americans who think this way should make themselves heard.  I think every racist imbecile in America should speak up loud and proud and declare their feelings for all the world to see.

That way, I know where they are and can avoid contact.  That kind of stupidity might be contagious.

Years ago, back when he was still funny, Dennis Miller had a line about racism in the public discourse.  He had words for all of those who were galled that groups like the KKK could hide behind First Amendment protections while parading their idiocy in front of the entire world.

(loosely paraphrased)

“Having the First Amendment in this country results in politicians like David Duke.  No First Amendment results in politicians like Adolf Hitler.”

While it might frighten you that hicks like this have a vote that counts just as much as yours does, take heart that there are a lot more of “us” out there than there are of “them”.  Making them part of the public discourse will further marginalize their viewpoints and make it much for difficult for a political party to cater to that base.  It’s not like those ideas are going to survive very long in the glare of the public spotlight.  Racism is a mushroom.  It thrives when in the dark and surrounded by bullshit.

Sure, you might see the Al Jazeera logo at the bottom of this screen, but those are Americans that are making us look bad, not the announcer who just happens to be speaking the truth.

Let’s address these comments one by one…  They are all ludicrous to the point of hilarity, but for the sake of argument, I’m going to tackle them anyway.  I need the laugh this morning.

“I’m afraid that if he wins, the black will take over”

Yeah, because he’ll pass that “Kill Whitey” law that the black community has been clamoring for all these years.  Pay no attention to Congress or the Supreme Court or the fact that the President can’t pass any laws on his own.  Whitey is gonna PAY when Obama is in the White (racist) House.

“He’s not a Christian! This is a Christian Nation!”

Oh, so then the Reverend Jeremiah Wright scandal was completely made up!  How could Obama have anything to do with Reverend Wright if he isn’t a Christian in the first place!  It still amazes me that a constituency that can recite the Second Amendment so passionately and eloquently is completely ignorant of the First Amendment.  You remember that one, right?  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”?  You can find it just before you get to the part about “Freedom of Speech” which is another clause that the Republican Party likes to ignore.

“When you’ve got a nigger running for president, you need a first stringer.  He’s definitely a second stringer”

Maybe if Obama broke into a chorus of “Mammy”, he could move into the starting lineup, eh?  What’s the matter?  Is Obama not “uppity” enough for you, Mr John Deere hat?

Fuck.  We’re 30 seconds into a 2 minute video.  It gets worse.

“He seems like a…wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Now Palin… She’s filled with the holy spirit.”

She’s filled with something alright.  Seriously, if Christians are this stupid, how did that religion survive for 2000 years?  I know this is a fundamentalist minority in Christianity, but let’s compare a list of atrocities between Christianity and Islam some time.  It’s easy to blame “Islam” for the world’s ills, but don’t forget that our side has a few extremists too.

“He’s related to a known terrorist”

Who?  Did Bill Ayers adopt him or something?

“He is friends with a terrorist of this country”

This would be an inconvenient time to bring up the connections between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens, eh?  The Bill Ayers story has been beaten into the ground already.  The fact that this “connection” is gaining traction with members of the Republican base says more about the intelligence of the average republican voter than it does about Senator Obama’s character.

“Just the whole… Muslim thing and everything”

Sorry lady, you can put it in vague language all you like, but you’re still a bigot.  A bigot that is too stupid to understand that Obama is not a Muslim.  You’re part of the problem.

“Obama and his wife… I’m concerned that they could be anti-white”

Project much?

“I don’t like the fact that he thinks us white people are trash.”

Not all white people, lady.  Just you.  In this case, he happens to be right.

The commentator in this news video introduces the video, then does not speak again until 1:20 of the 2:08 video.  The pictures tell the story.  The commentator introduces a pro-Obama protester, who happens to be white and is called “Baby Killer”, “Nigger”, and “Muslim” by the Republicans in attendance.  He plainly states that he is afraid that one of these whack-jobs is going to try to kill Obama, and his fears aren’t that unreasonable.

“The divisive nature of this campaign has brought out into the open what is usually discussed behind closed doors in America.  It’s a reminder that hate and fear are still powerful forces in American deciding(sic).”

The one good thing about all of this is that it is bringing racists and racism out into the open again.  Let the world know where you stand.  Are you a racist, bigoted moron?  Or not?  Why is the Republican party such a stronghold of white racism? Why do racist minorities flock to the Democratic party?  Let’s not pretend that only white people are idiots like this.  What is it that is keeping racism alive, and how do we kill it?

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone use “quotation fingers” around the word health.

• “So called ‘heath’”?
• “Alleged ‘health’”?
• “‘Health’ is just a code word for a welfare mom who doesn’t want to hatch out a 17th kid”?

“‘Health’… is the extreme pro-abortion position”

WHAT?!?

Damn those mothers who want to keep on living.  How dare they inconvenience our health care system with their silly desire to breathe.  Sorry, I can’t even mock this idea effectively because it’s too ridiculous on it’s own merits.

Abortion is none of the government’s business and watching the religious right try to fight this issue is a comic exercise in ignorance, prejudice, and stupidity all rolled into one.

Schieffer: But even if it was someone — even someone who had a history of being for abortion rights, you would consider them?

McCain: I would consider anyone in their qualifications. I do not believe that someone who has supported Roe v. Wade that would be part of those qualifications. But I certainly would not impose any litmus test.

Schieffer: All right.

No, it’s not all right.   In one sentence, McCain says that someone who supports Roe v Wade is not qualified to be a judge on the Supreme Court.  In the VERY NEXT SENTENCE, he says “I certainly would not impose any litmus test”.

Litmus Test: A litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would choose to proceed with the appointment or nomination. (The expression is a metaphor based on the litmus test in chemistry.) Those who must approve a nominee, such as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, may also be said to apply a litmus test to determine whether the nominee will receive their vote. In these contexts, the phrase comes up most often with respect to nominations to the judiciary.

If you’re going to bullshit, at least put in a couple of sentences of fluff about how you are fighting for a person’s right to life. (even though you support the death penalty)

Then, of course, there is Joe the Plumber…

I have a few questions for Mr. “The Plumber”.

1) Since when do plumbers make more than 250,000 per year? (No, really… I might consider a career change)

2) According to the data provided by CNN and mentioned in an earlier column here, the tax burden for people making between 250,000 and 650,000 dollars will increase, on average,  by 12 dollars per year.  If such an additional burden means that you are now unable to afford to buy your own business, then isn’t your capital stretched just a little thin already?

3) How, exactly, did you manage to appear on Fox News almost immediately after your “spontaneous” encounter with Senator Obama?

Wait just a minute…

In the first few seconds of this clip, you mention that your business makes between 270,000 and 280,000 dollars per year.

You’re seriously telling us that paying an additional 12 dollars per year in taxes (on average), one dollar per month, is the difference between you being able to afford your own business and not being able to afford it?

Bullshit.

In fact, since I will admit that I’m using an “average” figure to come up with 12 dollars/year, let’s look at EXACTLY how much more “Joe the Plumber” will pay in taxes under Obama’s plan.

• FACT:  Obama will raise the marginal tax rate on income greater than 250,000 dollars per year from 35% to 39%.

• FACT: Marginal tax rate affects only the income within a particular bracket.

• CONCLUSION:  Given Joe’s statement that he makes between 270 and 280 thousand dollars, here are the numbers.

270,000-250,000 = 20,000 dollars taxed at the highest marginal tax rate.

280,000-250,000 = 30,000 dollars taxed at the highest marginal tax rate.

Under the current tax code, Joe pays between 7,000 and 10,500 dollars per year at the highest marginal tax rate. (35%)

Under Obama’s tax plan, Joe would pay between 7,800 and 11,700 dollars per year in taxes at the highest marginal tax rate. (39%)

Net difference: 800 dollars per year.

So 800 dollars per year, not counting the elimination of Capital Gains taxes for small businesses is the difference between “Joe the Plumber” being able to afford his own business and not being able to afford it?  Sure, that’s a bit more than the 12 dollars/month cited elsewhere, but we haven’t yet discussed the savings from Obama’s “Making Work Pay” program that would put an additional 500 dollars per year in Joe’s pocket (whoops, final number just dropped to 300 dollars per year) nor have we mentioned reductions in lower marginal tax rates that would bring the overall tax burden down significantly.

800 dollars per year translates to about 16 bucks per week.  (300 ~ 6 dollars/week)

Perhaps if Joe cut out a couple of six packs per month, he’d be able to afford that business of his after all.   The fact is, if the success or failure of his business depends on less than 20 dollars per week, maybe Joe is riding a little too close to the edge, financially, to be successful as a business owner at this time.  Maybe another year or two might help Joe stabilize his financial position to the point where a cup of coffee each day won’t be the difference between success and failure.

While watching the debate last night, I thought that McCain clearly outperformed Obama in the first 30 minutes or so.  The “Joe the Plumber” references were really hitting home and illustrating the difference between McCain’s plan and Obama’s plan.  The problem is that folks like you and me can go back and check the facts, run the numbers, and watch previous speeches and debates to see where candidates have fudged facts or outright lied to us.

In fact, Jon Stewart and friends have made a rather successful TV show based on this concept.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

Except for…

As you might have guessed by now, I’m backing Barack Obama in this year’s presidential election.  If this surprises you, I would invite you to click on the Politics category and ready pretty much anything you find there.  While I knew, intellectually, that Alabama was “Red State” country and largely in support of John McCain, I really didn’t understand, in my gut, what that meant until I went to the game on Saturday.

Maybe you’ve heard those stories about people at McCain rallies who say that Obama is ‘an Arab’ and dismiss them as the rantings of scattered morons in a sea of otherwise rational human beings.  I talked to more than a few McCain supporters at the game (a local politician was giving out McCain/Palin stickers, and nearly everyone in the crowd of over 80,000 people had one on), and ‘Arab’ is only the first in an alphabetical list of things I heard Obama called this weekend.

• Arab
• Communist
• Foreigner
• Mohammedan
• Muslim
• The “N-bomb”
• Non-Christian
• Socialist
• Un-American
• Uppity

I heard more than one person state flatly that although they knew nothing about Obama’s policies, they would vote for McCain because they didn’t want a black man in the White House.  I honestly thought we were past this kind of thing as a nation.  These weren’t “Bubbas” wearing overalls and driving pickup trucks.  These were men and women whose only distinguishing superficial characteristics from an otherwise intelligent human being was an eastern Alabama accent.  These were doctors and lawyers and otherwise educated men and women saying things like “Obama should know his place” and “I won’t vote for any Muslim.”

To be fair, not every person wearing a McCain/Failin’ sticker was racially motivated.  I heard folks talk about how Obama was going to raise taxes for them despite the fact that none of the people who voiced this fear were in a tax bracket affected adversely by Obama’s economic plan.  I heard folks talk about how Obama was going to make the US weaker even though the current President has done more to damage the United States around the world than any President in my lifetime and McCain’s plan is to continue those policies.

I don’t know what scared me more.  The fact that they didn’t know any better? or the fact that the information is so easy to find, yet they don’t care enough to look for it.  In a way, it is a testament to the power of the Conservative Christian movement in the south.  I saw very little curiosity and a great deal of lock-step dogmatism masquerading as intelligent thought.  Having lived in the south for my entire life, I know for a fact that not everyone falls into that stereotype, but seeing such a large number of those people in one place was a bit frightening.  Those votes count just as much as mine does, and they put as much thought into who will be the most powerful leader in the world as I might put into which football game I’m going to watch next weekend.

Barack Obama, man of the cloth?

My best friend has called me onto the carpet and charged me with that most heinous of journalistic crimes, lack of objectivity.

Guilty.

I’m biased as hell.

Now that we have that out of the way, my friend has challenged me to bash Obama on some point, ANY point, just as an exercise in intellectual honesty. I must admit, after doing some digging into the matter, that there are a fair number of points to choose from.

First, there is his association with the “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright.  Let’s pick a few quotes and have a look, shall we?

• “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”

Factually accurate.  We did bomb Hiroshima.  We did bomb Nagasaki.  It is hypocritical to call your own civilian deaths “an act of evil” while simultaneously calling the deaths of someone else’s civilians “a necessary act of war”.  War is hell, and September 11th was an example of the other side taking the initiative and getting in a first strike.  We shouldn’t be fighting terrorists because “they’re evil and we’re the good guys”.  We should be fighting them because if we don’t they’ll kill more of us.  The question of “how we got here” is best left to historians.  Right now, we need to fight to win, which means killing more of them than they do of us.

• “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” (Sep 2001)

Again, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.  Is Wright saying that we “deserve” the attacks? or is he saying that he isn’t surprised that they are happening.  Would any serious student of history doubt that a foreign policy based on intervention will eventually make enemies around the world?  Pro-Israel/Anti-Palestinian… Same thing.  We chose our friends in the world, and in so doing, chose our enemies as well.  Do we really expect them to lie down for us while we exercise our influence unopposed?

• “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.” (2003)

I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.  Wright is clearly using the phrase “God damn America” as the polar opposite of “God bless America”.  It’s a rhetorical device designed to “shock and awe” the listener.

• “Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary would never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”

Would any rational human being find inaccuracy in this statement?  The fact is, “rich white people”, have called the shots in this country from the very beginning.  Is that inherently evil? No.  But if you are NOT one of those “rich white people”, might you feel a bit of desire to get a seat at the table?  Might you resent folks who were fortunate enough to be part of the “power demographic”?  The black community has made a lot of positive strides in recent history, but can you, just for a moment, imagine what is at stake emotionally now that Obama is running for the White House and appears to be winning?  Should blacks vote for Obama solely on the basis of his skin color or ancestry?  No, in an ideal world, elections should be decided solely based on the character and policies of the candidates.

I would try to come up with an example of such an election, but um… I’m still looking.

As for Bill Ayers, former 1960′s radical and member of the “Domestic Terrorist” organization “The Weather Underground“, that one’s even easier to counter.  Let’s ignore the fact that Ayers and friends were engaged in their “terrorism” when Obama was all of 8 years old.  How exactly are these two men related?  They served together on the board of the Woods Fund in Chicago.

What is the Woods Fund?

Woods Fund of Chicago is a grantmaking foundation whose goal is to increase opportunities for less advantaged people and communities in the metropolitan area, including the opportunity to shape decisions affecting them. The foundation works primarily as a funding partner with nonprofit organizations. Woods supports nonprofits in their important roles of engaging people in civic life, addressing the causes of poverty and other challenges facing the region, promoting more effective public policies, reducing racism and other barriers to equal opportunity, and building a sense of community and common ground.

Well that is certainly contro-fucking-versial.  Ayers donated 200 bucks to Obama’s campaign for the Illinois State House.  That’s practically an inexorable bond! (sarcasm alert)  A 1960′s radical backing a Democrat?  Say it ain’t so, Joe!

Of course there are other “scandalous” charges against Senator Obama.  Let’s look at a few of these in depth, shall we?

Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein.  In case one of my readers is both smart enough to read this far, and dumb enough to believe that this has anything to do with… anything, let me remind you that Obama was named after his father, and that Obama had just graduated from high school by the time Saddam came to power in Iraq in 1979.

Barack Obama is “secretly a Muslim“.  Um… no.

Barack Obama was sworn into office using the Quran.  You’re thinking of Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and so what?

Obama says “We are no longer a Christian Nation“  I can only hope… but alas, this is false too.

Obama was not born a US Citizen, and is a citizen of Kenya.  Well, technically, since Kenya was a British colony at the time Obama was born, that would make him British.  Of course, in 1963, Kenya gained it’s independence and granted citizenship to all former British subjects with ties to Kenya (like Obama’s father, which would, in turn, grant Senator Obama Kenyan citizenship)  Since Kenya does not allow citizens to hold dual citizenships after they turn 21, Obama lost his Kenyan citizenship in 1982.

Of course, all of this is rendered moot by the fact that he was born in HAWAII to a mother who was from KANSAS, thus making him as American as “Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet”.

Are you getting the idea yet?

In fact, the only real political haymaker thrown at Obama that I might be legitimately concerned about is his tax plan.  McCain, and others, try to paint Obama as a “tax and spend Liberal” who will raise all of our taxes.

Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? (numbers below taken from Cnn.com)

By the way, did I mention yet that the National Debt just passed 10 TRILLION dollars?  I *might* know a couple of people who’s tax bill will go up by 12 dollars per year under Obama’s plan.  Aside from that, the only folks paying more taxes under Obama’s plan are the folks who have been getting all of the tax cuts that put us under this debt in the first stinkin’ place.

I’m not saying that Obama is perfect.  I’m not “drinking the Kool-aid” from the Democratic party.  However, as I said before, the only question of interest to me is “Am I better off now than I was 8 years ago?“  Do I want more of the same? (McCain) or something different (Obama).  For me, personally, the question is a no-brainer.  Give the new guy a chance and let’s see what he can do.

Last night represented a first for me.  I parked my ass on the couch with my wife and watched a Vice Presidential debate in HD.  Normally, such attention is reserved for weekend football games and Jeopardy, those being about the only two things my wife and I agree on with respect to the idiot box.

I was about to witness a complete and total meltdown on live television, and there was nothing the McCain camp, or Palin’s “handlers” could do about it.  Imagine if Captain Smith saw the iceberg on “over the horizon” radar, and still sailed the Titanic right into that sucker.  This was going to be the best television since Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction”.

So it shouldn’t be a complete surprise that I was slightly disappointed with the debate itself.  Make no mistake, Biden’s “shit eating grin” spoke volumes about Palin’s babbling also rambling and did I mention that McCain is a maverick too, also, stumbling bumbling approach to the debate… also. (had to throw that last one in there to tie the whole sentence together, otherwise it might not have made sense)  Palin is the only candidate I’ve ever seen who can answer a question on foreign policy with a statement on her energy policy while governor of Alaska.  In fact, it seems like she answered EVERY question with a statement on her energy policy while governor of Alaska.

As for her delivery, can we give the hockey mom thing a rest?  I played hockey for a short time, which means technically my mom is a “hockey mom” too.  If she had talked like that around our house when I was a kid, we’d have had her locked up for being mentally incompetent. (let’s throw in one more “also” for good measure)  The constant winking at the camera and ham-handed cribbing from Ronald Reagan’s debate with Jimmy Carter in 1980 came across as fake instead of genuine and warm which is what made that approach so effective for Reagan in the first place.  (in fact, you can see a clip from that debate elsewhere on this very website)

What actually impressed me was Senator Biden’s performance.  I knew very little about Joe Biden aside from the fact that he had failed in the Democratic primaries twice, lead the Democratic lynching party against Robert Bork, and was considered someone who couldn’t keep his mouth shut at times. (my kind of guy, now that I think about it…)  I thought his approach was understated, yet more effective for that.  Instead of tearing into Palin’s rambling approach with a stream of soundbites and pithy comebacks, he either responded with the facts to correct her statements (effective) or threw a dazzling shit-eating grin into the camera as if to say “You don’t need ME to tell you she’s full of shit”.  Both he and Barack Obama appeared relaxed and ready to handle the pressure of a debate on live television.  McCain and Palin appeared nervous, uncomfortable, and unwilling to answer the questions asked of them.  It was Kennedy v Nixon all over again in vibrant HD color goodness.

What really got me, and I think this was the clincher, was Biden’s emotional response to dealing with family issues.  When Palin slid so easily into her “hockey mom” routine, Biden came back with a simple, yet emotionally powerful statement.

“Look, I understand what it’s like to be a single parent. When my wife and daughter died and my two sons were gravely injured, I understand what it’s like as a parent to wonder what it’s like if your kid’s going to make it.

I understand what it’s like to sit around the kitchen table with a father who says, “I’ve got to leave, champ, because there’s no jobs here. I got to head down to Wilmington. And when we get enough money, honey, we’ll bring you down.”

I understand what it’s like. I’m much better off than almost all Americans now. I get a good salary with the United States Senate. I live in a beautiful house that’s my total investment that I have. So I — I am much better off now.

But the notion that somehow, because I’m a man, I don’t know what it’s like to raise two kids alone, I don’t know what it’s like to have a child you’re not sure is going to — is going to make it — I understand.

I understand, as well as, with all due respect, the governor or anybody else, what it’s like for those people sitting around that kitchen table. And guess what? They’re looking for help. They’re looking for help. They’re not looking for more of the same.”

Who would have ever thought that a 36-year Senator would “get it” more than a self-professed “hockey mom” who’s entire image screams “Mom, apple pie, and baseball hockey”?  I don’t care how much you rehearse before a debate, or how much you cram, if your message is wrong then the preparation is worthless.  Obama and Biden stayed on their message, a message that resonates with the voters.

Sarah Palin came across as “one of us” in the debate last night, and no doubt the McCain campaign considers that “Mission Accomplished”.  The problem is, we don’t want “one of us” in the White House.  We want someone who is more prepared and more informed than we are to make the decisions.  It is too much to hope for to ask for someone smarter than us, or better than us, but at least give us someone that we can look in the eye and come away with the confidence that they can get the job done.  Palin should be running a boutique in a shopping mall somewhere, not one heartbeat away from Air Force One.

I can’t take credit for this information, the inspiration came from a debate with Ronald Reagan many years ago.

If you’ll remember, this debate effectively gut-punched Carter’s campaign.  Jimmy “Nobel Prize” Carter, who many consider to be the best EX-President in American history, is a good man who advocated many positions that are central to today’s campaign.    Health Care, Energy Independence, Education were all key points in Carter’s campaign message, yet Reagan beat him in the general election like a pinata filled with cupcakes at Rush Limbaugh’s birthday party.

Why?

“Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?”

It’s JUST THAT EASY! (now do you see why I use the Popeil reference?)

Ask any sane human being and you’ll hear the conventional wisdom that promises made by politicians aren’t worth the airwaves that they travel on.  We all know that politicians lie.  We all know that they’d sell their mothers for another 4 year fix.  We know this, yet the public insists on getting swept up in campaign speeches and debates where nobody remembers the salient points, but everyone parrots a clever soundbite.

When was the last time you checked a voting record in detail?  If Senator Whatshisname “voted against the troops”, did he do it because there was too much pork included in the bill? Or was it because another version of the same funding bill was circulating in a House committee and he preferred that version instead?  Nuance may not sell with Joe Sixpack, but it is a fact of political life.  Sometimes politicians have to hold their noses and vote for things that will get them in deep shit with their constituents.  That’s how the game is played.  If reporters, who are paid to do this sort of work, can’t keep up with all of the nuance, how can the American voter be expected to do the job well?

Some folks take a shortcut and listen to their friendly neighborhood radio talk show host.  Others hang out on their favorite political blog among like-minded individuals where their preconceptions are reinforced by a sympathetic audience.

Same sheep, different color wool.

The great thing about most elections is that they are not held in a vacuum.  There is always an incumbent and there is always a challenger.  If you like the way things are going, you vote for the incumbent.  If you don’t, then you vote for the other guy.  Simple? Yes.  Your job is to form an intelligent opinion on the state of the world and make your decision.  It’s not that hard.

Why have Republicans had a stranglehold on the Presidency since 1980? (well, except for the Clinton years, which I’ll get to in a moment)  The economy was booming, we were top-dog in the global kennel, and the vast majority of us were thanking whatever divine providence was in vocal range that we were fortunate enough to live in the U-S-of-by-god-A.  Back when uttering the phrase “I’m an American” in a foreign country earned you a certain amount of deference, or even a free drink, depending on where you travelled in the world.

Try walking into a bar in Europe these days and loudly proclaiming “I’m an American!”.  At best, you’ll just be sniggered at.

How did Clinton break up the Republican streak?  “It’s the economy, stupid!”  The economic recession in the early 90′s got everyone refocused on the question of “Are you better off today…” and it cost Bush the election.  4 years later, when things had improved largely on their own, the same question kept Clinton in office for another 4 years despite galvanized opposition from the talk-radio crowd.

But Grim, you ask…

“What about 2004?”

We were still reeling from the 9/11 attacks in 2004.  We had just gone into Iraq the previous year and stomped the holy hell out of Saddam’s army.  We were fresh off of “Mission Accomplished” when election season came in.  The economy appeared to be rebounding, and Americans were disinclined to change direction at that time.  A very good argument could be made that 9/11 guaranteed Bush an 8 year term since the American public rarely votes for a challenger in time of war (or at least a war that we appear to be winning).  Were we “better off” in 2004 than in 2000?  No, but being unable to see the forest for the trees, the American public had the perception that better days were on the way really soon.

Even if Barack Obama spends his entire presidency trying to push through his campaign promises, it is a virtual certainty that he will fail to get everything he wants.  Even if John McCain is such a Maverick that he fights every bit of pork-laden legislation that crosses his desk, it is a virtual certainty that he will trend in the same political direction as his predecessor.  The only thing you can count on is that Obama will be a change of direction, and McCain will “stay the course” politically speaking.

So I put it to you again…

“Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago?”

In the bizarro world of contemporary politics, being “average” makes you better than someone who is part of the “elite”.  Let me see if I have this straight.

The candidate who “represents the Average Joe”:

• 26 year member of the United States Senate
• Son and Grandson of Navy Admirals
• Married to an heiress
• Owns so many houses and cars that he cannot apparently remember them all
• Has never been gainfully employed in the private sector

The candidate who “is part of the liberal elitist establishment”

• Son of a single mother
• In elected office (at any level) for just over 10 years
• Recently announced that he has just paid off his student loans
• Has a net worth that is not much higher than my own, and I work for a living
• Worked as a Community Organizer and college professor before going into politics

I’ll grant you that working as a professor (“Lecturer” to be completely accurate) and as a “Community Organizer” is only classified as work under the loosest possible definition, but it’s more than Senator McCain has done in all of his 72 years.

While I’m sure I could write several thousand words about Sarah Palin, if you aren’t hip to this scam by now, nothing I say here will make any difference.  This chuzzlewit is one 72-year-old-with-a-cancer-history heartbeat away from having access to the “Big Red Button”.  She makes Dan Quayle look presidential, for Christ’s sake.  If I wanted a sit-com (in the ‘stereotypical’ sense… not implying that she actually has the talent to act on television) mom in (or next to) the Oval Office, then why couldn’t it be Claire Huxtable?  At least she was intelligent.

In a last ditch attempt to convince the fence-sitters out there of the danger that Palin poses to the entire Western World, let me leave you with this…

She made Katie Couric look like a hard-nosed journalist.