Update:  Response from the McCain campaign:

Hey, John McCain used to live in Asia too.  He has very fond memories of his time spent in North Vietnam.  All those comments he made about "killing gooks" are what makes him authentic.

Wouldn't we all have liked to have been a fly on the wall listening to that conversation?  What a relief for Bernanke to not have to dumb down his statements so that Obama will understand.  

By the way, I love my non-college educated family -- all of them -- but none of them are qualified to be President.  That position requires intelligence, education and the ability to listen.  Senator McCain is not qualified to be POTUS by either temperment or intelligence, and the people who surround McCain and advise him should scare every thinking voter into voting for Senator Obama.

Obama 08

Bob Tremblay
Metro West Daily News
July 27, 2008

“Sen. John McCain will be the next president of the United States.

That is a virtual guarantee for the simple reason that the Democrats have once again nominated a man who cannot win. The only circumstance that could cost McCain the election is if he throws a temper tantrum during a televised debate. And even then, people will still vote for him. "That man's got moxie," they'll say.

Three factors will tip the scale in McCain's favor over Sen. Barack Obama, and you don't need a degree in political science to figure out what they are.
- No. 1 - Racism. For all the people who will vote for Obama just because he's black, far more will vote against him. While progress has been made regarding race relations in the United States, anyone who doesn't think racism still runs rampant in this country is an optimist or a fool.
Do you think a nation that only a few years ago wouldn't let blacks drink at the same water fountains as whites has cleaned up its act enough to elect a black man president of the United States?
Obama's Muslim-sounding name won't do him any favors either, considering how many Americans equate Muslims with evil. They're the 21st-century version of communists.

In more than 200 years, this country has elected only white WASPs as president with the exception of John F. Kennedy, a white Catholic. If you want to see diversity in action, don't go looking for it in the appropriately named White House.

- No. 2. Experience. This is the word you'll hear over and over again as people explain why they're not voting for Obama. For many people, "experience" is a code word for "I ain't voting for that uppity (fill in the blank)."

Other people will point to McCain's 22 years in the Senate and his Vietnam War service as reasons for voting for him. "In these war-torn times, we need a man who is war-tested as a commander-in-chief," they'll say. The implication is that if Obama is elected, Osama bin Laden will be opening a Terrorists 'R' Us franchise in a mall near you.
Experience is a plus, of course, but it's overrated when discussing necessary attributes for presidential success. What good is someone who served decades in political office if that person didn't do anything worthwhile? Far more important are leadership skills, courage, integrity, the ability to inspire and, for a change of pace, intelligence and the willingness to acknowledge mistakes.

Voters who place a high priority on experience should know that Abraham Lincoln, arguably the greatest president this country has ever produced, didn't exactly have an extensive political resume before running for the White House. He served one term as a U.S. congressman and failed in his one attempt for U.S. Senate.

- No. 3. Liberalism. The "L" word might as well be a swear word these days. "Obama will raise taxes." "Obama will be soft on dictators." This country has been inherently conservative from Day One and after 9/11, it has only become more so, and Republicans own the conservative vote.

Anyone who thinks the American voter will do the right thing at the polls should be reminded of two words - George Bush. This country not only elected arguably the worst president in the history of the United States, it re-elected him. You'd think this nation would be fed up with Republican ineptitude. You'd think wrong. Don't you know it's all Congress' fault anyway? And that would be the Congress controlled by godless, appeasing, liberal Democrats.”

THE REAL JOHN McCAIN

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JG29Aa01.html

CAMPAIGN OUTSIDER
If McCain were a Democrat ...
By Muhammad Cohen

After well over a year of campaigning by both candidates and dozens of debates, there aren't any surprises left along the road to the White House.

Vice presidential choices won't change the game. The job itself isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit, according to one VP, and hardly anyone votes based on the number two person on the ticket. Count on both John McCain and Barack Obama to pick mainstream figures, and the "surprise" of putting a woman or minority on either ticket would be no surprise at all.

What we're all wondering is how the Republicans and their unaffiliated political hatchet groups will go after Obama. It may be despicable, but it's the way the Republicans and the right do business in America today. McCain says he wants a clean campaign, and he may run one. But allies in 527 groups - named for the statute that allows these so-called independent groups to operate - such as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, can be relied on to push the campaign into the gutter. McCain himself, from lobbyists running his anti-lobbyist campaign to his claims of being an environmentalist while getting a zero rating from the League of Conservation Voters, has proven himself quite capable of saying one thing and doing another.

Easy target
You know the right will go after Obama, you say you don't like and won't fall for it, but, like me, you're dying to see how they'll do it. Obama's campaign has already set up a website, www.stopthesmears.com to deal with the slime it rightly expects. There are so many avenues open to attack: Obama is liberal, elitist, black, with a colorful cast of characters in his past and present. How subtly or explicitly will anti-Obama forces play the race card? To what extent will Reverend Jeremiah "God damn America" Wright's fiery sermons feature? What's the right way to frame Obama's foreign, Muslim father for maximum negative impact on his son who didn't wear a flag pin? Will "typical white person" be the tagline for this campaign, the way Willie Horton is for 1988? Will the lasting image be that New Yorker cover featuring his "terrorist fist jab" with gun toting "baby mama" Michelle Obama (or an equally fanciful doctored photo of Obama embracing Louis Farrakhan), or his empty seat on key votes stretching back to the Illinois legislature?

When it comes to smears, as Don Vito Corleone said, "It's not personal, it's business." If John McCain was the Democratic nominee, rather than the Republican candidate, the right would bury him, too. They wouldn't bother with his flip-flops on President George W Bush's tax cuts or the minor differences that have cooled evangelicals and other far rightists on McCain, they'd go for big targets at the heart of McCain's image and message.

Start with McCain's Vietnam-era service. A gung-ho navy flier, McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and held captive for five-and-half years. As a prisoner of war (POW), McCain heroically resisted his captors. He was refused medical treatment for his severe wounds and tortured, leaving him handicapped to this day. He refused an offer of early release, fearing the propaganda value while his father commanded US Pacific forces.

During a 1968 Christmas Eve church service in Hanoi before international media, McCain showed his middle finger, recounted his torture, and yelled obscenities. He returned home in 1973 on crutches with his once-dark hair white at age 36. McCain was anointed Vietnam War POW number one and retains that rank. His military decorations include the Silver Star, Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Hanoi John
But McCain also broke under torture. His captors refractured his bones, bound him in what are now known as "stress positions" by Bush administration overseers of torture, and beat him. After a failed suicide attempt, McCain signed and taped a confession of his war crimes. That would be enough for rightists to pounce on his war record far more effectively than General Wesley Clark did.

"When he faced the biggest challenge of his life, John McCain failed himself and his country," the commercial would say. "A navy flier, John McCain made one mistake: getting shot down. He made a bigger mistake when he gave his captors more than his name, rank and serial number. McCain cracked. He confessed to war crimes, slandering US fighting forces and our nation in a propaganda film made to order for the North Vietnamese communists."

Then they'd trot out a Vietnam-era veteran (or a guy who looks the part) to say, "I was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, but I didn't betray my country and my comrades in arms the way John McCain did. America's enemies may want a traitor and a coward as our next president but I sure don't. So I won't vote for John McCain."

Too much? Look at what the right did to Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004, who won a Silver Star and Bronze Star for his Vietnam service. Karl Rove bragged, "When we get finished, people won't know which side he fought on in Vietnam," and it worked. The attacks on Kerry succeeded in part because his opposition to the war after his service raised questions. Attacks work best in areas of existing doubt, and it's not unreasonable for the conflicting ideas of war hero and POW to make voters a fuzzy about McCain's military service.

Character issues
Similarly, Republicans would find plenty of scope to question Democrat McCain's personal integrity and morality, despite his refusal of early release and other special treatment as a POW. There's McCain's admitted philandering while married to his first wife. That marriage broke up after McCain met Cindy Hensley, who was young, rich and offered McCain a base to launch the political career he was already contemplating. How convenient.

They'd probably replay some of McCain's profane rants from the senate floor and his "Bomb Iran" ditty to suggest he's temperamentally unfit for the presidency. They'd use those clips to also suggest lingering psychological damage from McCain's brutalization in captivity.

Democrats are trying to make political points with McCain's pretensions as a reformer while stocking his campaign with the very K Street lobbyists he supposedly loathes. But the Republicans would go for real meat with McCain's involvement in the most expensive political scandal in US history, and his failure to learn from it.

Costly friendship
McCain was one of the Keating Five senators who intervened with federal regulators on behalf of Lincoln Savings and Loan head Charles Keating Jr, a six-figure campaign contributor and, in McCain's case, a business partner with his wife and father-in-law. The late 1980s-early 1990s savings and loan crisis cost US taxpayers more than US$100 billion. Keating was convicted of fraud and more, and the Senate Ethics Committee "rebuked" McCain. To make amends, McCain became an advocate of campaign finance reform from 1994, co-sponsoring the Bipartisan Campaign Reform act that became law in 2002.

While talking the talk on reform, Republican opposition would say McCain didn't walk the walk. McCain chaired Texas Republican senator Phil Gramm's short-lived 1996 presidential campaign that remains a monument to Washington money politics. Gramm was known as the senator from Enron, and his wife Wendy Lee Gramm headed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, approving many of Enron's products before joining the company's board of directors, supervising one of the biggest corporate frauds in US history. McCain enlisted Gramm as his campaign's chief economic adviser until Gramm called voters "whiners" in an interview.

When he became chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee in 1997, overseeing all forms of business regulation, McCain took contributions from the very businesspeople he was regulating. According to the New York Times, McCain also fell back into his old habits of riding on corporate pals' planes and addressing federal regulators on their behalf. If Republicans were running against McCain, they'd label him a gold-plated, brazen hypocrite.

There's no point in debating whether these kinds of smears are fair or whether they work: they're not fair, and despite what everyone says, they work with voters. Here's the other big question left in campaign 2008: why aren't Democrats making these very points about McCain?

Former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen told America’s story to the world as a US diplomat and is author of Hong Kong On Air (www.hongkongonair.com), a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, high finance and cheap lingerie.

(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

It makes his niece a beautiful child.

EVERYONE:

Please join me on Monday, August 4 to give a BIRTHDAY SHOUTOUT to Barack Obama. He will be 47 years old and better than ever!!!!

It is the extended family that American is now dealing with.  The non-traditional family is growing with step-children and half siblings.  I guess this is to show that Obama can relate to that kind of family structure.  It also shows that there are issues that are beyond the normal African-American community that he has been made aware of. Good for him.  

Our country is really an amazing melting pot. That is why it stresses me out so much when I see the divisive nature of folks these days.

How can we stop these negative attitudes and just relax and be the great Americans that I know are!

Obama is the most Multi Ethnic man in Goverment.Period that is what the GOP are affraid of. These people can't face the fact that AMERICANS are in of itself MULTI ETHNIC gee did't no that! Hellow GOP wake up and smell the roses because you and your RIGHTWING ILK are done come November!!

Obama 08

man you make feel like you are and a good buddy to have

Obama! Why did you ever leave Hawaii? I visited twice and would love to live there!  Leaving Hawaii makes me think twice about your so called judgment because no one in their right mind would ever want to move out of Hawaii [kidding! kidding! kidding!].

Obama's a cameleon (sp?).  He can be anything, anywhere, anytime it suits him.

First read -- Thanks for a peaceful article. We have been battling for so long,.... well thanks.

***************

Marty Holloman,

Thank you for your encouraging post under 'No New Taxes'.

********************************

Nobama,

You posted about your grandson in Iraq many months ago. I hope he is safe.

Please answer a sincere question. How do you resolve the issue of McCain's non support for him with the votes he has cast against GI inititives in Congress?

How can you fight so hard against Obama who the Vets prefer well over Senator McCain?

You give due diligence on this board. You know that the energy bill Senator Obama voted for had renewable energy proposals in it, but you posted an attack on Barack for voting for it anyway, conveniently ignoring the complex nature of his vote.

Help us understand you. I know about your Ayres, and Wright arguments. Why do you give McCain a pass on his stuff, as you did with Hillary.

"before departing Missouri" and having a conversation with Dick Gephardt is my hunch. I think you guys are making too much of the Kaine thing. He almost certainly isn't the only one being vetted.

"before departing Missouri" and having a conversation with Dick Gephardt is my hunch. I think you guys are making too much of the Kaine thing. He almost certainly isn't the only one being vetted.

Apparently, McCain also had his scruples removed at the saem time he had that mole done...


'..."I have been waiting for the way in which the McCain campaign would begin to begin to racialize the [election]," Davis said."...'



From Huff Post:


'... McCain Tests The Waters Of Race As Campaign Issue

Has John McCain started to aggressively court the white vote?

It sounds like a question with an obvious answer. But when facing the first black nominee of a major party for president, the manner in which John McCain addresses white voters is bound to be a careful one -- and we may have just seen the first toe-dip. As several reports have pointed out, McCain's newly announced support for Arizona's anti-affirmative action ballot initiative over the weekend represents a reversal from ten years ago, when he called a similar effort "divisive."

As flip-flops go, however, this one was a gimmie. Obama, who has been careful not to define his political identity by his race, has largely avoided talking about affirmative action on the stump, and has even hinted at major changes to the program. Given that he faces an opponent who is unlikely to drill down on this particular flip-flop, McCain is relatively free to make the switch and reap the political benefit in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

"Affirmative action continues to be a symbolic issue that people find very emotional," said Notre Dame political scientist Darren Davis. "And because we're not debating a specific policy proposal at the moment, it's an easy wedge issue that most every American has an opinion on. So therefore the political mileage is gonna be a lot higher." While Davis doesn't necessarily believe McCain's flip-flop was planned by the campaign, he believes they are likely monitoring its aftermath in order to get a feeling for how race issues can factor in the general election.

"I have been waiting for the way in which the McCain campaign would begin to begin to racialize the [election]," Davis said. "And I think this is perhaps the beginning of it. ... I'm not suggesting that McCain is playing the race card at the moment. But this is the beginning of a racialized sentiment being infused in the campaign."

Conservative writer Deroy Murdock disagrees, however, saying: "I don't think [this is] a specific effort to appeal to white voters. Anything John McCain is doing to emphasize color blindness or race neutrality is a recapitulation of the basic American ideal of equality." Regarding the flip-flop, Murdock notes the fact that a full decade has elapsed since McCain's previous position. "He's changed his mind, and I think he's doing the right thing."

More than anyone else in the last decade, the man who engineered Arizona's anti-affirmative action initiative has shown how powerful the politics of the issue can be. Ward Connerly, a former regent of the University of California system, has become adept at using direct democracy to end the policy, state by state, at the initiative level. By re-framing affirmative action as reverse racism against white people that must be stamped out, Connerly, who is one-quarter black, has found success in all four states where his initiatives have made the ballot -- even when prominent Republicans have stood in his way.

In an era of close races between the two major political parties, Connerly's initiatives can win by double-digits. ("Fake Republicans run the other way," Murdock noted. "And there are a lot of fake Republicans. That's one of the reasons the base is so dejected.")...'


Obama/Biden '08
Change, anyone ?

And so....Chuck...I would ask you and First Read...is this what this election is going to be?  Another negative....name calling, give me a headache campaign this year??  I am going to have to stop watching TV!  My head hurts just reading all this negative back and forth.  Is this the man (McCain) who was going to run a nice and cordial campaign?

Isn't it strange that the Obama only remembers his multi-ethnic background when it is convenient?  During the primary, I didn't even know he HAD  a sister-still haven't seen as much as a family photo, let alone the grandmother, who, seemingly, is still alive.

Don't let the Republicans know that you are multi-racial.  They may try to use that against you by saying that you are not one of us.  The president should be a pure blooded American.  That's why we have had so many Native Americans as president up until 2000.  Yea right.

We are a nation of many; backgrounds, culture, beliefs, religion, and customs.  This we should be proud of.

Our candidate's schedule wears me out just reading it!!  

Obama/Biden '08

To Joe scarborough on "MORNING JOKE"

1. Obama has ELEVEN years of Senate experience to Hillary's EIGHT.  He was in the Illinois state senate for 8 years and has been in the U.S. senate since January 2005. In the state senate he sponsored 780 bills, of which 280 were signed into law.  In the U.S. senate he has sponsored about 152 bills and resolutions, and cosponsored about 427.

2. He worked as a community organizer in Chicago, making $13 an hour, helping thousands of people who had lost manufacturing jobs get back on their feet (jobs, health care, housing).  He also helped register 150,000 voters.

3.  Obama sponsored  the Health Care Justice Act in 2004, which "encourages Illinois to implement a health care plan that provides access to a full range of preventive, acute and long-term health care services."

4.  He sponsored a 2003 bill that expanded KidCare and FamilyCare, health insurance programs for low-income families in Illinois which led to more than 150,000 additional people receiving health insurance through these programs.

5. He introduced a bill that required that police officers tape interrogations.  This bill passed in the Senate 58-0.  The Governor who originally opposed this bill, signed it into law.

6. He increased the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.50.

7. Obama cosponsored Secure Orderly Immigration Act by John
McCain. It passed 62-36.

8. He Worked with republican senator Lugar to expand and author a
program to locate & dismantle stray Russian WMD's left over
from the cold war after the disbanding of the USSR.

9. In the first two weeks of the 110th Congress, Senator Obama helped lead the Senate to pass the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act a comprehensive ethics and lobbying reform bill, by a 96-2 vote. This landmark bill was signed into law by the President in September 2007.  The final bill that the Congress passed closely mirrored and drew key provisions in a bill that Senators Obama and Senator Feingold introduced in January 2007 to establish a "gold standard" for reform

10. He toured Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian territories and told
Palestinian Authority Abbas that the United States would never recognize
Hamas leaders until they renounced mission to attack Israel.

11. As an Illinois State Senator, he helped pass the state's first major ethics reform bill in 25 years.

Would you like me to go on?  Oh and here's an 11th accomplishment:  He beat the Clintons! Not just Hillary, but all three of the Clintons.  The Clinton brand is VERY powerful.  They have been on the political scene for decades.  Everyone is a familiar with them; they have strong ties with a whole host of Democratic leaders and many states as well.  I mean, they were Preisdent and First Lady for 8 years!  Obama was not really well-known outside of Illinois until 2004. Yet he has managed to run a better campaign than them and has beat them.  That's HUGE.

People shouldn't take the candidates and the media at their word.  Go to the candidates' Senate Web sites and their campaign Web sites and READ what they have done and plan to do.  INFORM YOURSELF.  

I don't think anyone is paying attention just now with the earthquake in LA

That is why it's so frustrating when the media attempts to pigeon-hole Obama into an AA candidate. It is so much more than black & white. He can draw from multiple backgrounds and has lived the true "American dream" life, going from rags to riches, unlike McCain who only got where he's at due to his fathers coat-tails. Talk about phony. John McCain's the one who is phoney, NOT Obama.

I see John-boy is starting to talk about raising taxes.  He has finally realized that the war does have to be paid for along with our infrastructure.  I guess he thought that these items would pay and fix themselves.

I know that Obama knows what it is like to be poor. Let's be honest, America is full of poor people who have the audacity to hope for an economy that might give them a higher minimum wage and health care. We as a nation would be so lucky to have an intelligent person like Obama to lead our country. Let's hope that the multifaceted country of ours will see the light and vote for Obama. Let's get rid of special interest groups and lobbyists and get a functional America again. Our economy is suffering from the greed of American society who puts their interests ahead of people. Go Obama!

Some ask why Obamas lead in the polls is not
greater then it is over McCain.

Consider:

Of the two candidates, who because of his race and racism in this country automatically loses  2  5 percentage points?

Of the two candidates, who is supposedly less well known then the other candidate?

Of the two candidates, who has had a shorter time to prepare for and begin a general election campaign?

Of the two candidates, who is still being incorrectly called a Muslim by 10% of the population?

Of the two candidates, who is supposed to be too young and inexperienced?

Of the two candidates, who speaks of change to people who although asking for change fear change as it takes them out of their comfort zones?

Of the two candidates, who is not considered a War Hero?

Of the two candidates, who has had less experience in politics and the art of political maneuvering during a major campaign?  

The answers  Obama.

Then should the question why is Obamas lead in the polls not greater then it is over McCain really be why is McCain not leading Obama in the polls?  It seems that many including those in the media are asking the wrong question. When one candidate is not African American and suffers no prejudice because of his race; is more well known then his opponent; has had a longer period of time to prepare for and implement a general election campaign; is not incorrectly considered a Muslim by 10% of the population; is considered experienced; does not speak of taking people out of the comfort zones(change);  is considered a War Hero; and has more experience in politics and political maneuvering techniques during a campaign, then why is this candidate (McCain) not leading the newcomer (Obama) in the polls and by a large percentage spread? That is the correct question.

its great that obama can talk about these issue openly.  why is it that obama is more comfortable talking about personal issues and mccain isn't? mccain wont even talk about his adopted daught which is from indonesia i think and mccain wont even talk about his religion, its a shame.

RNC New Video attacks germans and Obama
http://sensico.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/video-rnc-makes-fun-of-germans/
or
http://sensico2.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-blogs.html

20 Years Later: Another McCain At Center Of A Bank Collapse and Government Take-Over?

Almost exactly 20 years ago -- in the middle of the saving and loan crisis -- federal regulators seized Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, California. The takeover took place more than a year after five United States senators had tried to hold-off a government investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board into Lincoln's risky loan practices regarding home loans.

Those five senators included Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the chairman of Lincoln was Charles Keating -- who was not only a top McCain donor but was Cindy McCain's business partner in a real estate deal in Arizona (as I detailed earlier this year). This scandal -- known as The Keating 5 -- remains an albatross for McCain's political career.

Well, 20 years later, we're back in the middle of another banking crisis and federal regulators have already begun seizing insolvent banks, and this advisory ran on the wires over the weekend:

Silver State Bank, announced today that Andrew K. McCain submitted his resignation today as a director on the Boards of Directors of Silver State Bancorp and Silver State Bank, citing personal reasons.

Mr. McCain previously served as a director of Choice Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona from 2006 to April 1, 2008 when Choice Bank merged into Silver State Bank. Mr. McCain had been appointed to the Boards of the Company and Silver State Bank in February, 2008 and had served on the Audit Committee.

Andrew is none other than the son of John McCain.

It was pointed out above that Andrew McCain served on the bank's audit committee -- the entity which would know most about the bank's financial situation and its portfolio of increasingly bad loans. Is McCain fleeing the bank, knowing that federal regulators are likely to seize it in short order and did not want his name attached to a collapsing bank right in the middle of a presidential race where his dad is the trailing nominee and whose own political history is soiled with unethical actions involving a bank collapse during the last great banking crisis?

Shockingly -- or not -- the traditional media hasn't yet touched this development, that I've seen. But let's keep a very close eye on developments. It might again prove the saying that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

So unlike John McCain who "threw away" his first wife because she was terribly injured in an auto accident while he was a POW. So he ditched her and his kids for a "trophy" wife who is also rich. He also seems to vote against every issue women are interested in.

At least Obama has pride in his family. Hope all you women who support McCain take pride in his actions. I don't.

All we have heard is how Obama is Afican American and he is proud of being the lst black presidential candidate.  Now we find out that he also considers himself to be of Asian/Pacific Islander.  He has claimed everything but being white.  What won't he claim or do to get votes.  

Donna, Lincroft, NJ-
Obama mentioned his sis & family background much during the primaries (you obviously missed it). His sis campaigned for him in Hawaii. I've been following him closely since January and heard it more than once, so I think you just missed the coverage.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):