Links for the Prez Race

Here is Obama's political record, how he got to office:

When Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004, he was not the initial favorite. Instead, businessman and longtime Democrat Blair Hull led in the polls. Then reporters started pestering the courts to get his divorce records unsealed. He fought it, but they were released -- revealing that his wife had accused him of threatening to kill her, and he was arrested. No charges were ever filed in the matter, but the accusation was enough -- Hull was humiliated and withdrew from the race. With Hull gone, Obama won the primary handily.

Then came the general election. The Republican nominee was a guy named Jack Ryan, a man who had become a multimillionaire working for Goldman Sachs. After they went public, he retired and became a teacher in Chicago's inner city. He also managed to woo and wed actress Jeri Ryan (of Star Trek: Voyager and Boston Public fame); the couple had a son before they divorced in 1999.

Ryan was doing very well in the polls -- until reporters decided to pry into his divorce and child custody papers....
The Obama campaign took the high road, and asked that the records not be made an issue. Unfortunately, they did this after numerous Obama staffers kept e-mailing reporters with the latest details on the fight over unsealing the records, urging them to pursue it. In fact, their moral and principled stand was issued a week after a judge ruled that the records would be released.

Sound familiar?

Scary stuff:

"Don't go into corporate America," Michelle has exhorted youth. "Work for the community. Be social workers." Shun the "money culture," Barack added. "Individual salvation depends on collective salvation."

"If you commit to serving your community," he pledged in his Denver acceptance speech, "we will make sure you can afford a college education." So, go through government to go to college, and then go back into government.

Heh, after decrying gender politics, Senator Obama is commissioning female minions to counter Palin enthusiasm. Hillary says it's really sweet of him to call and all, but she thinks she's washing her hair- or something like that:

Advisers to Mrs. Clinton said that she stood ready to help the Obama-Biden ticket, but they urged the campaign not to overestimate the impact Mrs. Clinton could have, noting that she had other commitments this fall, like campaigning and raising money for Senate candidates.

No, she thinks she's washing her hair next weekend, too, Obama, and come to think of it, she might be doing her nails:

Hillary Rodham Clinton has no intention of becoming a Sarah Palin attack dog — but has no qualms going after John McCain, people close to the former first lady say.

“She’s not the answer when it comes to winning conservative women — she never was — and we’re not going to be anybody’s attack dog against Sarah Palin,” said a Clinton insider.

Betsy highlights Governor Palin's reform credentials, which are very impressive indeed.

That strange shot of something that looked like a mansion in the background of McCain's speech? That included such a large expanse of lawn that it looked like he was standing in front of a green screen? Talking Points explains it- it's Walter Reed school, and whoever put that stock photo up probably was meant to find a stock photo of Walter Reed hospital.

Vile- Huffpo offers its readers the chance to put up any slanderous, viscious slimy thing they wish to say about any member of the Palin family, and their readers take advantage of that 'opportunity.' What is wrong with these people? And they accuse those with whom they disagree of being the haters? This is not political discourse. It's psychosis.

Todd Palin on video:


Code Pink in the news again, at least the blog news, particularly their co-founders, cofounders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans.:

Evans has bundled between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama as well as contributing the maximum $2300 to Obama's presidential primary campaign. She co-hosted Obama's breakout Hollywood fundraiser at the start of his campaign in February 2007.

As a bundler, Evans has been given perks that include regular briefings by top campaign staffers on policy and private meetings with Obama and his vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.

And she was one of the Code Pink protesters who had to be escorted out of camera range during her attempt to rush the stage and disrupt Sarah Palin's speech. Does the right do this? I'm not being snarky, I really don't recall seeing any nutcases hauled out of Obama's speech, and the only protestors I remember at the DNC were those goons screaming at Michelle Malkin.

Ah, the media:

"I really do take exception to it," NBC News President Steve Capus said. "These terms get thrown around in an awfully cavalier way, and they're incredibly damaging. We're in the business where words matter, and those are awfully, awfully strong accusations."

Is he talking about the unconscionable smears and attacks of Governor Palin's family? Is he talking about the way they just 'raise questions' based on nothing more than the innuendo and libel initiated by the deranged posters at the DU? About the NYT posting a front page article falsely claiming Sarah Palin was a member of a secessionist group based on nothing more than the claim of an Indpendence party rep who later had to admit she'd not checked the records, she was passing on something she'd been told by a person she will not identify? No, he is not.
He is whining about the very pointed (and well sourced) criticism that the media is incredibly biased and have become mouthpieces for the Obama campaign. The absurdity of this utterly self-unaware whinging made Steve Schippert snort coffee up his nose.

One thing I have genuinely admired about Senator Obama is his intelligence, and something I don't admire but respect is his shape-shifting chameleon like grasp of protective coloring, but I begin to wonder if this was smoke and mirrors, as his responses to Governor Palin have been singularly tin-earred and fumbling:

Mr. Axelrod said the campaign would work instead to impress upon voters the seriousness of the race and continue to try to link the McCain-Palin team to President Bush.

While Mr. Obama did not aggressively challenge Ms. Palin, his advisers opened a new line of criticism to brand her as part of the Republican establishment.

“For someone who makes the point that she’s not from Washington, she looked very much like she’d fit in very well there when you see how she brings the attacks,” Mr. Axelrod said. “They all felt very familiar to Americans who are used to this kind of thing from Washington.”

Let’s see if I’ve gotten this straight: “Palin=Bush=Washington insider” because she criticized Obama. He’s the only true Washington outsider; everyone else is an imposter.

Palin may be many things—and no doubt she has a number of flaws that Obama could highlight in his campaign—but one thing she most definitely is not is a Washington insider or a Bush clone. Her outsider, reformer status is immediately apparent to anyone who has even a glancing familiarity with her biography, or who watched more than a few seconds of her speech on Wednesday night.

I have no idea who will ultimately win the Presidential race, and right now it seems to be a tossup. What I’ve seen from the Obama campaign ever since he clinched the nomination is a shocking lack of preparedness and a strange inability to adjust to changing circumstances.

I don’t know whether it will lose him the election. But if it doesn’t, I sincerely hope it isn’t a taste of what we’ll get from an Obama administration.

Exactly. This has thrown him badly off his game, and he and his campaigners look spiteful, petty, and small. I was sure he was going to win, and it is indeed too soon to tell for sure, but it's going to be a much tighter race than I expected, and if he loses he'll be able to point back to the way he was caught flat-footed by Sarah Palin's nomination as the moment he lost his momentum.

It's like watching an old Three Stooges movie, and Obama and campaigners are slipping on the jar of ball bearings McCain tossed in their paths, poking each other in the eye, and knocking each other down, scrambling to get up and get going again. It almost made me giggle to read this, but then I winced instead. I've always found the sort of humor based on humiliation and prat falls rather painful to watch.

So suddenly has the momentum shifted that TPM claims Team Barry’s toying with the idea of abandoning its “ignore Palin” strategy and going after McCain over the fact that … Palin’s more gosh-darned popular than he is. Mind you, they were pushing the Eagleton meme two days ago; now, post-speech, they’re ready to argue that the ticket should be flipped. I can’t remotely fathom why they’d want to boost Palin’s credibility by emphasizing the fact of her appeal, unless they’re going for some sort of ... “celebrity” meme of their own vis-a-vis McCain. The problem is, the celebrity thing only works against Obama because he’s inexperienced; it’s the fact that people are so excited about a lightweight, not the fact that people are excited at all, that makes him seem ridiculous in those spots. If the Dems try it to McCain, it’s going to come off either like they’re congratulating him for finding such a killer running mate or as a backfiring commentary on why politicians with thin records really don’t deserve such adulation. Cross those fingers.

Jim Treacher notes:

It occurs to me: If Obama's experience in this presidential campaign is itself to be considered one of his qualifications for the Oval Office, what are we to make of his performance over the last few days? Is this an indication of how he deals with adversity? Because -- and this may be unfair -- it seems to me that over the next 4 years, the President of the United States will face much tougher challenges than watching a cute lady with glasses on TV.

Hotair has video of Palin and McCain in Wisconsin- McCain is really good here- when he's talking. When Sarah talks, he never seems to know what to do with his hands.
But I'm impressed.

Several newspapers reported the lie started on one of the rabid leftist blogs about Sarah Palin slashing funding on programs where she actually increased it- only one of them apologized and corrected their error so far.

Oprah isn't going to have Palin on her show, until possibly after the election. Personally, I think this brouhaha is silly. Oprah's isn't a straight news show, it's her show, and it's deeply reflective of her values and choices, and there is nothing wrong with that. Yes, she had Obama on twice. So what? It isn't a news program.She did have him on before he publicly announced his candidacy, but I don't think anybody is seriously naive enough to believe that both of them knew perfectly well he was going to be running, and that both of them hoped it would help. But again, I don't think she should be forced to have Sarah Palin on if she doesn't want her on. So this really doesn't interest me much. This comment by somebody supporting her did interest me very much:

"Having Palin on the show would be a conflict of interest," said Elwood Watson, a professor of history and African-American studies at East Tennessee State University and co-author of "The Oprah Phenomenon."

"She's made up her mind, and she's not going to sway from it," said Watson, when asked whether it would be plausible for Winfrey to simultaneously support Obama and interview Palin on her show, which could be interpreted as an endorsement. "How can you endorse two people?"

So now we know. When Oprah has anybody on her show, she's endorsing them. That's good to remember. Appearing on a talk show is proof you've been endorsed by the talk show host.

Would you believe it? This isn't even a parody:

Republicans, stop calling Obama elitist

Because the real reason you don't like him is that he's smarter than you.

By Bill Maher
[...]Barack Obama can't help it if he's a magna cum laude Harvard grad and you're a Wal-Mart shopper who resurfaces driveways with your brother-in-law. Americans are so narcissistic that our candidates have to be just like us. That's why George Bush is president. And that's where the McCain camp gets its campaign strategy: Paint Obama as cocky and arrogant and wait for America to vote him off, like the black guy in every reality show. A black president? Half of Pennsylvania isn't ready for black quarterbacks. Forget Obama, they think Will Smith needs to be taken down a peg.

And finally: As for "country first," you know who's putting country first? I am, by supporting Obama, because a victory this fall for the McCain-Mooseburger ticket would make my job in the next four years very, very easy.

The book-banning story- nobody can name any books Sarah banned or asked to be banned.

A pocketfull of cuteness- here's video of Piper smoothing Trig's hair- set to music. That caption on the end put a lump in my throat.