Diane from Illinois: "Barack Obama is a movement"

Movement. Yes. The same type of movement Germany had in the '30s. Democrats are so clueless.

Today's Gallup Poll:

   - Obama 49%

   - Mccain 40%

It didn’t take long for McCain to co-opt the Obama position on Iraq and is now foolish enough to think the American public would believe him.

He went from 50 or 100 years, by 2013, the end of his first term to a 16 month timetable a position Obama has held for 16 months.  Now it’s his idea.

His credibility, honor and integrity have long since disappeared.  He is a caricature of the man we once admired.  Someone on his staff must tell him to stop making a fool of himself.

This is nothing more than a plan by mccain which I call "bait and switch"  or maybe "watch this slight of hand".  Incredible that the only strategy of the mccain camp is to play tricks of deception on the American people.  We are not that gullible.  I am going to enjoy watching every bit of these sideshow antics blow up in the face of mccain and his handlers.  
Senator Obama has been consistent in his statements and has made visionary judgments.  
If mccain is so smart, why didn't he speak up about the Afghanistan situation and instead said nothing as the Bush administration took their eye off the ball in the true pursuit of terrorism and Bin Laden?  mccain is a dangerous threat, himself, to the American people.  

Friday night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan flatly stated that the Bush Administration was feeding news and talking points directly to FOX news and other media outlets favorable to the President.  The President of the U.S. is using a “news” channel for propaganda purposes.  FOX is reporting the news that the administration wants us to hear.  It appears that we now have a state run news channel, like in Cuba, North Korea, China and worse, like Nazi Germany.

Not one single mention in the press.  Besides being flatly illegal, and a violation of the first amendment, no one seems to care.

The fact that FOX is involved is no surprise.  Where else in the U.S. can people like Hannity, O’Reilly, Ingraham, Rove and Coulter spew their venom. Even with talking points supplied by the administration, they still have to make up “facts” and revise history to support Bush policies.  Two nights ago they slammed Obama for stating that the U.S. used torture.  Both O’Reilly and Coulter slammed this assertion as ridiculous even though the Administration, the CIA and FBI have all admitted that GITMO detainees and others were water boarded.  They must have lost the talking points from a week ago when the administration was trying to justify these methods.

The fault, however, is not with FOX.  No one actually believes they have ever been fair or balanced in their “news” reporting.  They were fed stories ahead of other media outlets.  As far a Rupert Murdoch, the owner was concerned; they were making millions of dollars spewing the news according to Bush.  FOX and its owner were never about fact.  Ambush journalism, revisionist history, smear and fear tactics and flat out lies were and are their trademark.  Making money their first priority.

The part that scares me the most is that the media has allowed itself to be usurped by the administration.  We have now witnessed the media being propagandized.  Our news is being filtered through the lens of the government and corporate interests.  The administration decides what they want us to hear and even what news is important and mainstream media buys into it.  Taken with CBS’s deliberate omission of misstatements of fact made by Sen. McCain and insertion of an answer to another question in its place, one has to wonder how much the government and corporate interests are influencing news coverage.  Perhaps it explains the free ride McCain is getting from the press. Perhaps it explains the media fervor to find anything derogatory about Obama.  Why is the press still looking for a 25 year old Obama college thesis instead of questioning and examining the McCain voting record?  Why, because his 26 year long voting record would never pass the “smell test” of the American public.  We can’t have that, because no one wants to say anything derogatory about a “Genuine American Hero”.

Most media outlets assign one reporter to each campaign.  That reporter spends an inordinate amount of time with the candidate.  Perhaps they get too comfortable, too close.  They need access to do their nightly reports.  They need to curry favor with the candidate to get a seat on the front of the bus.  Flubs are ignored, outrageous comments designated as “senior moments”, McCain just being McCain” and John just being “authentic”.  These are excuses for slanted media reporting and they have become totally unacceptable.  Either report the straight unbiased news or call it opinion.  That was the tradition set by Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner and Timothy J. Russert.  These men set the Gold Standard for journalistic integrity.  Too bad the media they once represented no longer feels it is their job to get it right regardless of the consequences. Regardless of the consequences!

I know this won't get posted - but just in case FR hasn't flushed itself entirely down the john -

some real opinion and interesting analysis:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/opinion/27rich.html?_r=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Thank you, First Read, for pointing out what should be obvious to the McCain campaign. Then again, it probably IS obvious to them. They just prefer lies.

T. House, Quuens, NY (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 1:42 PM)
Your comparison is weak and without merit. You should study history before you try to draw analogies that don't work.
You have once again proven Godwin's Law, which states, "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
It is common online conventional wisdom that once such a comparison is made the discussion is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost the argument.

You've just got to just love the bull that comes out of the McCain campaign.
It's all an insult to the intelligence of the American people...but apparently not the press!

That smell emanating from McCain world is the stink of desperation. The ludicrous TV ads this week, McCain's "look-at-me!" snarks about Obama's patriotism, and now this. It is nothing but the playground taunts of an angry man who knows he has no real weapons and is reduced to empty ridicule. It is only a matter of time before someone with a hidden cell phone captures McCain losing his temper and saying something truly ugly.

And man, the debates are going to be embarrassing.

McCain is looking for a bone being thrown his way to validate his only apparent view of the Iraqi War. The man is desperate to be acknowledged.  Even when it is, he does not recognize the wording, like many Republican minds, simplicity is a must and for McCain simplicity equates to "surge."

By the way, sending in 10s of thousands of troops is nothing less then than a killing machine so what would one expect? Of course violence is diminished, duh.

Is McCain starting to sound frantic to anyone else?  Some of this is getting just plain silly.

Diane from Illinois: "Barack Obama is a movement"

Movement. Yes. The same type of movement Germany had in the '30s. Democrats are so clueless.

--T. House, Quuens, NY (Sent Sunday, July 27, 2008 1:42 PM)


...or the same type of movement Reagan had in the 1980s. But it's more fun to try to associate Democrats with nazis, huh?

Just curious about the upcoming debates.  Is it true that McCain's campaign is trying to make sure that the candidates are either sitting down or that McCain will be able to stand on a box or platform out of the viewer's sight to make up for the unfair height advantage that Obama has? If so, this is taking whining to the extreme.

John McCain is not fit to be Commander in Chief.

Period.

He doesn't have the knowledge.

He doesn't have the temperment.

He doesn't have the class.

He is a fraud.

He has repeatedly LIED about Senator Obama and RECREATED history to his benefit. And the media sits by and doesn't say a word.

No matter - just as Iraq must stand up and take control of their country, so too, the American people will. And it starts with doing our own research and NOT relying on the corporate media. The consequences are too high to put our futures in the hands of such an unreliable source.

MTP today was such a disappointment. Brokaw had a chance to ask pointed questions to get specific details on Obama's policies on any number of economic issues, but what did he do? Asked Obama to respond to critical statements made by several conservative "columnists", and parroted every other reporters attempt to force him to say "the surge was a success" in the language that the MSM and McCain's camp want him to use so that the RNC can use that sound bite in their next campaign slur. How many times have the talking heads criticized him for "all rhetoric, no substance" and yet, when given the chance to spotlight the substance they choose to ask the same old line of questioning? Pathetic.

Thank you Ira. More people need to talk openly about the damage done over at Fox Propaganda. They have played a major role in where our country is today. They have big ratings and that's a major problem.
Keith Olbermann has been pounding on this for years. I've been pounding on it for 2 years. No one else seems to care. Can you imagine?

I don't know, maybe Congress will do something about the Bush Administration handing over talking points to this so-called news outlet. I think perhaps that's what it will take. Anyone with half a brain should be able to see that Sean Hannity is not that bright. No law against that. But being a mouthpiece for an entire Administration? Isn't that illegal in a democracy as Rachel Maddow pointed out?

But this is a subject which needs to be talked about more often. Keith and Rachel and now Chris Matthews, but that's basically it.

I guess everyone is so used to it that it doesn't raise any eyebrows.

You would have thought Howard Kurtz would have brought it up this morning. He's got zero credibility in my eyes.

John McCain & Karl Rove - they've gotta go.

This is our moment - this is our time.

This morning, McCain told George Stephanopoulus that US troops could be out in one month, if conditions on the ground were sufficient. That's what Obama said all along. McCain has become a parasite on Obama's positions.

If the surge worked as well as McCain brags it did, why can't we leave now?

I've had it with this phoney jerk, and his asinine ads, and his misleading statements. John McCain you have no honor.To those of you that are going to be screaming back" he served his country and was a POW" go suck an egg. John McCain dies not hold all the cards when it comes to patriotism. Your " Summer of Love" is an insult to hundreds of thousands of us who protested the war. The implication that many of us froliced around while you showed your love for this country, made me want to smack you. We were tired of seeing our  loved ones coming home in body bags from a war, that to this day can not be explained. You have the balls to question our love of country? If you had'nt voted for this illegal war we would'nt be having these ridiculious debates on the surge. I have nothing but pity and disgust for you.

Obama is winning the foreign policy issue.  As long as the US government, Iraqi government, and Afghan government agrees with his foreign policy then he has won the day.  All he needs to do is switch to the economy this week and STAY THERE for the rest of the election.

If Obama wants to win the economy argument, he has to link it to Iraq.  $12 billion in Iraq is hurting our economy at home.  Why he is reluctant to make that argument is beyond me.

Sen. Obama will admit he was wrong about the surge working when Grandpa admits he was wrong  for advocating invading Iraq in the first place.  There would be no need for a surge or for the over 4000 dead and 50,000 injured Americans if Bush and Gramps had not lied about weapons of mass destruction which all the experts agreed were not there.

Senator McCain is depending upon the electorate to be uninformed as usual. Some are, but many more than normally do are paying attention to this campaign.

McCain's ad is an outright lie. It ascribes, as Mark has reported in the article, statements to Sentor Obama that he never made. As a matter of fact his positions have been quite the opposite.

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I DVR'ed 'Meet The Press', and am watching it now. Brokaw hasn't bothered to hide the fact that he is there with a partisan agenda to attack Barack. He is conducting his interview like a scolding, snotty old fishwife. Obama, however, is carving up Tom's little snit fits with facts. Red herring, after red herring thrown his way by Brokaw has been lobbed back calmly, and with an irrefutable debunking.

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NEOCON TROLL ALERT!!!!!!!!
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Will the United States will soon withdraw from America when conditions on the ground get too rough? More people are killed in the streets of North America than in all of Islamic countries combined ncluding those slaughtered by the Crusader bush. Some of you are probably involved in or near a violent crime as you read this. America is so corrupt and all of you so reprobate that your society is unsalvagable, you will purge yourselves from your own land through your own debauchery corruption filth and the murder and disease you freely share among your vile compatriots. Those who survive will die of their own stupidity and ignorance. Your only hope if for Mr Obama to remove all the corrupt justices from the profitable court system and replace them with Muslim clerics to instill a true legal system to america which will bring justice back and remove the vile corruption from you.
AbuBakerSmith (Sent Friday, July 25, 2008 9:31 PM)
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This neocon is striving to convince us that Obama is a secret Muslim with a hidden agenda. The vicious, and radical tone of the post is a dead give away. If Obama were a mole, in lock step with these ravings, why would this idiot blow his cover? Also, Muslims do not refer to their religious leaders as clerics. They are called ‘sheikh‘, (meaning scholar), ‘mu’alim’, (meaning learned), or ‘Imam’, (meaning leader of the prayer). Finally, the signature is a mis-transliteration from Arabic into English. AbuBaker, as signed above,  should have been transliterated AbuBakr; without the ‘e’, and sounding like Becker, not Baker. Any Muslim the world over knows the correct pronunciation, and transliteration of the name of the best friend of the Prophet Muhammad. Millions of  Muslims are named after him.

This poster wants us to think he is a crazy American Muslim, and Obama follower. He is neither. He is a neocon.

You,JOHN MCCAIN, are a liar,fraud and a disgrace to the American people.

This week in John McCain:

- Doesn't know which came first, the Anbar Awkening or the surge, even though he INSISTED that this was history. The media decides that the order doesn't matter because "the troops helped".

- Claims the first major war after 911 was Iraq, apparently forgetting that little conflict in Afghanistan. The media didn't say a word.

- Criticized Barack Obama for making a speech in a foreign country, something he has done in THIS campaign. Did anyone in the media specifically ask him to explain why this was okay for him and not Barack Obama? Nope.

- Adopted Barack Obama's 16 month time table claiming that the major difference was that his was based on "conditions on the ground".

Ironically, it was John McCain who also claimed that Barack Obama was flip flopping on Iraq because he indicated that his 16 month timetable could change based on condtions on the ground.

Did anyone in the media point out this fact? 'Course not.

- John McCain has exploited a misunderstanding that led to Senator Obama not getting an opportunity to visit wounded soldiers in Germany. (I say misunderstanding, when I know da*n well it was sabotage, but that's beside the point).

Did anyone in the media ask John McCain why he was using injured troops politically, going so far as to run an ad? 'Course not - John McCain is a POW don't cha know.


John McCain hasn't been asked to apologize for his vote to go into Iraq, hasn't been called a flip flopper for adopting TOTALLY DIFFERENT positions about Iraq and Afghanistan, hasn't been called out on his TORTURED explanations of what the surge is and when it started.

The big story this week?

Is Barack Obama TOO presidential?

Is he TOO beloved by other countries?

Is he upstaging our current inept President by being competent?  

Why are the news anchors not following John McCain around America's grocery stores?

Who does Barack Obama think he is  - taking all this "hope" and "change" to the rest of the world?

Doesn't he know he isn't allowed to let his light shine without the media's permission?

It is painfully clear that spending too long in Washington is not only a detriment to politicians, it skews the world view of pundits as well.

They just can't imagine that out in the "real world" - the air is so much fresher than the constant diet of lies, fear, and confusion they are constantly fed in Washington. Clearly, the media is so compromised by their toxic envirnonment, they can't see a good thing when it's staring them in the face.

Predictable, but sad.

John McCain = stuck on stupid!!!

The Mccain campaign has become cartoonish: McCain is Daffy Duck to Obama's Bugs Bunny.  McCain looks increasingly foolish, envious and petty as he twists the truth in plain sight.  McCain's entire campaing seems to be a continuous complaint about Obama. Yet Obama outsmarts him again and again and makes McCain seem weak.  Rather than asserting his own positions, McCain's whole campaign looks like one long "reaction" to Obama.  The impression is that Obama is the leader--with McCain following him, but never catching up.  McCain thought he would lay a trap for Obama by daring him to go to Iraq; he thought he could force Obama to say he was wrong about the surge.  Unfortunately, McCain's plan backfired--Obama went to Iraq just as the Iraqis are endorsing Obama's timetable for withdrawl, the military is calling for more troops in Afghanistan, and even the Bush administration is opening diplomatic talks with Iran--all positions Obama has been calling for for more than a year.  Also, Obama's assessment, that a number of factors--of which the surge is one--contributed to the progress in Iraq right now--demonstrates a more comprehensive command of the issues than McCain's simplistic, cowboyesque (all-or-nothing, either-or)one.  Every time McCain attempted to criticize Obama last week, he made a mistake--a gaffe--that demonstrated how confused or out-of-touch he is.  I believe the Iraqi government is moving in Obama's direction because they are following Obama's lead--they realize that he could very well be the next President and, as such, would call on them to get their act together politically and militarily because we will not be there indefinitely.  Already, Obama's presence--and the policies he as outlined--have had an effect.  Obama's determination to withdraw from Iraq has set the wheels in motion.  In contrast, if McCain is elected, he is determined to continue an American occupation of Iraq indefinitely.  Like the neo-cons, McCain wants us in Iraq--because they wants those oil fields.  McCain will lead us into another war or prolong this one because war is his baliwick.  By his own admission, the economy and domestic issues bore him.  As for the military, he likes to play war--but drops the ball when it comes to supporting veterans, especially those wounded in war.  Sometimes it seems that McCain himself is suffering from PTS--because he wants to correct the outcome of the Viet Nam war through the Iraq War, which shows that he doesn't understand what was happening in VN while he was a POW.  He is lost in time, which is sad for him--dangerous for us.

So, let me get this right.  Obama is now anti-troop.  But McCain is the one that didn't show up for the new GI vote, and he even talked about being against that bill because it would encourage our troops to want to leave the military after their contract is up.  McCain also voted AGAINST health care for our returning veterans.  

McCain should really quit with these illogical attacks.  He's making himself look weak and pitifull.  He's trying to make this an anti-Obama election.  Which if the media keeps covering up his gaffes might just work.

Sound reporting.  Why not report that John McCain is the one who is changing his position. He was for NO WITHDRAWL until victory. Never mind he has not defined what victory means.  Now Obama is backing his views.  I know John McCain is in his 70's but I hope dementia has not set in.  My view is he changes his position to fit the moment.  So much for the wrong way express. I am sure "Morning Joe" will report tomorrow that Obama has changed his position.  It is their only response. Tell a big enough lie and it will become truth.  By the way Joe I am not a"left wing nut for Obama". I am a Republican who is sick and tired of the use of fear to erode away our constitutional rights. McCain voted for the war and backed it fully.  That is the genesis of judgment. There would of been no need for a SURGE if we never fought the wrong war.   We do not need Bush III.

McCain is revealing himself to be incredibly shallow by focusing only on what is wrong with his opponent, rather than focusing on what is wrong with the country and how to fix it.  He is not presenting any in depth, visionary solutions, but only limited single pointed concepts (ie. more offshore drilling) with no analysis of consequences (ie. why not drill in existing leases; no benefit for at least 10 years) and then sticks to them in spite of the facts.  Isn't that what we have already had for 7 years?  Where has it gotten us?

Most people do not realize that when Obama visited the troops in Iraq and Afganistan it was funded by congressional funds. Evan Senator Hagel says that the Pentagon telling the Obama camp at the last minute he could not visit the troops in Germany because it was political (Obama campaign money) at that time. Because of this Obama talked to troops on the phone in Germany. McCain has again distorted the facts to make himself look good. Again McCain looks like a desperate, confused, misinformed old man.

Mister Anderson: I am sure Obama will make the connection between the $12,000,000,000 a week in Iraq and the US economy in due time,he has the most effecient staff in my seventy years of life plus his intelligence on top of that.

Mr. Obama has set the standards for the way all campaigns will be run in the future,effeciently.

I was wondering when someone would remind everyone that Obama has always talked about having a residual force left behind.  What has taken you guys so long, anyone who has been paying attention to the primaries knew that.  Geez, sometimes the main stream media waits way to long to actually tell the whole story, but at least they finally did.  Now we will see if everyone else follows suit, I kinda doubt it.

Arizona voter for Obama!!  

Prediction, Obama will win the state of Arizona this November.
 
Next we get rid of McCain in the senate.  

McCain was against additional U.S. forces in Afghanistan before he was for it.

17. McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”

18. McCain has repeatedly said it’s a dangerous mistake to tell the “enemy” when U.S. troops would be out of Iraq. In May, McCain announced that most American troops would be home from Iraq by 2013.

19. McCain was against expanding the GI Bill before he was for it.

20. McCain staunchly opposed Obama’s Iraq withdrawal timetable, and even blasted Mitt Romney for having referenced the word during the GOP primaries. In July, after Iraqi officials endorsed Obama’s policy, McCain said a 16-month calendar sounds like “a pretty good timetable.”

Source: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/flipflops

John McCain the amnesiac/ possibly undiagnosed (early Alzheimer’s) candidate has no substantive authenticity…. Does the realization of what borders on ludicrous mean anything to this befuddled, amnesiac old Man?  Obama was right about Al-queda in Iraq. John McCain the amnesiac/ was wrong about the “Anbar Awaking”.  Obama knows the geography of the world, implications of geopolitics, domestic issues whereas you Johnny boy are always dead wrong. Repeatedly uttering the same meaningless task same forever is analogous to the same meaningless task of pushing a rock up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. Get it old man.

The McCain camp has democratic primary written all over it.  

Maybe McCain should send a quit thank you note to Hillary for having given his campaign so many strategic ideas.  

But, I'd remind McCain who the winner and who the looser was.  

This is just great!!!

In all my time on the board, I have never seen so many excellent posts as in the past few days.

Much as I like and admire the folks at First Read, you need to know your posters are way out ahead of you here.

You good folks here at FR have been slow (although Richard Wolffe doesn't miss much) to call McCain on his pathetic blarney.

Yes, I feel a bit sorry for him too, but I am not paid to deliver reality based information.

If Obama gets lynched (screwed out of this election), the media will have a lot to answer for.

Keep your eye on the ball.

And thanks again to some superb posters here.  Reminds me of this blog in the early days!

I respectfully disagree.  People do NOT know the real John McCain, but they are beginning to.

This is NOT the McCain of 2000.  This is a totally different McCain who is pandering to his base and whoever he has to for votes.

I am a resident from Arizona.  This man has done nothing I can recall as helpful to anyone here including veterans.   McCain is NOT SO PRO VETERAN as people assume.  He has hid this very well.   Check the record of his votes.  The latest was the bill sponsored by Senator Webb and others for educational benefits for returning veterans.  He voted AGAINST IT.  People ASSUME because he was a POW he is for veterans.  The record proves different.   And now he is trying to disparage Obama on his Landstuhl
Decision because Obama did NOT want to use wounded troops for political gain WHILE MCCAIN IS DOING EXACTLY THAT IN HIS LATEST AD.

He does not know so much about war as he says.  Folks, HE WAS A POW and that deserves respect but IT DOES NOT MAKE HIM AND EXPERT.  He held no field commands.  He was a glamour boy that flew airplanes.  DO NOT ASSUME that makes him an expert on the strategy of war.  Field commands do that.

Do NOT assume just because he has been in the Senate forever that makes him so knowledgeable.  Ask why he could NOT achieve more than he has before the age of 71 with a POW background.   Its because he just does not have it.

Listen to him carefully.  Any rational, open minded, unbiased and non racist person would have to agree he is really lacking in so many ways.    The so called "surge* is the only thing he has been even close to right on and then he fails to consider "political achievements" in his assessment of its success.
     
It is unfortunate that John McCain, a man who deserves a nation's respect as a POW is a man without vision and is oriented only toward violence in solving our future problems.

HE IS WAR IN IRAN WAITING TO HAPPEN.

Ira great post. It should be reprinted in every opinion page in every paper in the country.

Obama will say and do anything to get your votes, folks.  Wake up and quit drinking the kool aid.
McCain08; Hillary 2012!

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