DEDICATED TO JOHN McCAIN AND SARAH PALIN

Leadership begins now. During a campaign.

The best run campaign may be judged on its merits or it can be judged on who wins. It would be beneficial to have both of these. Merits and winner.

It is how you play the game for some of us. Still.

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The text just below was posted with this video on October 13, 2008
Former McCain Supporter Accuses the Senator of Deliberately Feeding the Most Unhinged Elements of Our Society the Red Meat of Hate
Uploaded by gfde08

Frank Schaeffer, bestselling author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. He is the son of the late evangelist Francis Schaeffer and considered himself a lifelong Republican. He voted for John McCain in 2000, and McCain even endorsed one of Schaeffers earlier books on military service. On Friday, Schaeffer published An Open Letter to John McCain in the Baltimore Sun:

John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as not one of us, I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence.

At a Sarah Palin rally, someone called out, "Kill him!" At one of your rallies, someone called out, "Terrorist!" Neither was answered or denounced by you or your running mate, as the crowd laughed and cheered. At your campaign event Wednesday in Bethlehem, PA, the crowd was seething with hatred for the Democratic nominee—an attitude encouraged in speeches there by you, your running mate, your wife and the local Republican chairman.

Shame!

John McCain: In 2000, as a lifelong Republican, I worked to get you elected instead of George W. Bush. In return, you wrote an endorsement of one of my books about military service. You seemed to be a man, who put principle ahead of mere political gain.

You have changed. You have a choice: Go down in history as a decent senator and an honorable military man with many successes, or go down in history as the latest abettor of right-wing extremist hate.

John McCain, you are no fool, and you understand the depths of hatred that surrounded the issue of race in this country. You also know that, post-9/11, to call someone a friend of a terrorist is a very serious matter. You also know we are a bitterly divided country on many other issues. You know that, sadly, in America, violence is always just a moment away. You know that there are plenty of crazy people out there.

Stop! Think! Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.

John McCain, you're walking a perilous line. If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters when they scream out "Terrorist" or "Kill him", history will hold you responsible for all that follows.

John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.

Change the atmosphere of your campaign. Talk about the issues at hand. Make your case. But stop stirring up the lunatic fringe of haters, or risk suffering the judgment of history and the loathing of the American people forever.

We will hold you responsible. End of text

At the Alfred Smith Dinner, John McCain spoke of his respect of Barack Obama. At the same time, McCain has the automated call - robo call - going out that says the following:

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500."

Repeatedly I have heard John McCain say that the people quoted at his and Sarah Palin's rallies and town halls with "Kill him", "Terrorist", "Off with his Head" about Barack Obama are "fringe" people. Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin draw fringe people together which means they have a great opportunity to educate our fellow citizens on racism and how it can hurt our economy, security and well-being as a people of justice and peace.

Senator McCain said at the third debate when questioned about this, not that this is inappropriate behavior, but that he is "proud" of the people who come to his and Palin's rallies. He also said that he has things said to him at his rallies. McCain doesn't say what is being called out. I will dare to say that what is being called out to McCain or Palin doesn't amount to "Kill him or her". We have a history in this country of what racism bears in society's fruit.

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Billie Holiday sings Strange Fruit
Uploaded by wingedambersky

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McCain and Palin and their roles in helping divide the United States of America
Uploaded by PoplicolaPhronesis

"No, it's not negativity. It's truthfulness!" - Sarah Palin

"I'm not gonna stand for people saying that the people coming to my rallies are anything by the most dedicated, patriotic men and women that are in this nation." - John McCain

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Late Show with David Letterman - Senator John McCain
4:42
"I screwed up."
"I don't (know)... yes..."
"It's a matter of trusting the word of someone..."
John McCain's relationship with and attendance of fund-raiser at G. Gordon Liddy's question and John' wriggling, avoidance and eventual answer

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David Letterman questions Senator McCain about choosing Sarah Palin
5:33

GOP Senator Slams McCain Robo Call

Source

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Rigel Anderson report: Embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins is calling on Sen. John McCain to stop paying for automated phone calls which describe Sen. Barack Obama as having "worked closely" with "domestic terrorist Bill Ayers."

"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."

Contacted on Friday by ABC News, the McCain campaign would not say if it was going to heed the request of Collins who serves as his campaign's co-chair in Maine.

"Obviously, Sen. McCain has great respect for Sen. Collins. But beyond that," said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, "we don't have any comment."

Ayers is the former leader of the Weather Underground. To protest the Vietnam War, his organization ran a domestic bombing campaign which resulted in fatalities.

Obama, who was 8 years old at the time, has repudiated those acts as "despicable." Friday's statement from the Collins campaign came after Maine's Democratic Party issued a press release earlier in the day challenging the Republican incumbent to denounce what it called "blatantly false phone calls personally attacking" Obama.

Collins' Democratic opponent was not satisfied.

"If she truly feels that strongly about it," said Carol Andrews, communications director to Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, "she should resign as co-chair of McCain's campaign in Maine."

Here is the script of the McCain-RNC robo call about Bill Ayers, which Collins criticized on Friday:

"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country. This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee at 202-863-8500."

Politico has the audio HERE.

The Collins criticism of McCain's robo call was first reported by Jessica Alaimo of Politicker-Maine and later confirmed by ABC News. End of article's text.

Below article's source at this link:

Surprise, shock and some fear in a local neighborhood, after an anti-Obama display is hung from a tree. The display is at a home at Symmes and Hicks Road in Fairfield.

And the person who put it there says the message isn't political, it's racist. Shawn Ley spoke with the man who isn't shy about his views.

There it is, right above the "McCain-Palin" sign: a make-shift ghost, hanging from a noose. A Barack Obama sign attached upside down. Obama's middle name: "Hussein" spray painted and misspelled above.

Mike Lunsford hung the ghost in his yard. He spoke to us off-camera, saying his views could hurt his employers business ... but he says make no mistake: He doesn't want an African American running the country.

Lunsford says he believes Barack Obama is not a "full blooded American." And he says the United States is a white, Christian nation - and only with white Christians should be in power. With Lunsford not willing to share his views on-camera:

"It's like whoa. He's definitely anti-black."

His neighbors are. Vickie Crowe lives next door. She's an Obama supporter.

"What did you think when you first saw that?" Vickie Crowe/neighbor: "Well actually my 5 year old son says Obama's hanging upside down. He's what? He's hanging upside down. It's the neighbor's ghost. I took it as a little bit of a racist statement because my grandson's mixed and it hurt a little bit."

Mike Lunsford says he got the idea after an Obama supporter in New York put up this display of a Obama mannequin being chased by a figure of John McCain wearing Ku Klux Klan robes.

Here - new mom Megan story says this symbol makes her more than uneasy it scares her. Megan Story/neighbor: "He's been a really nice neighbor but it's one of those you question and wonder, you know, if he's that forward about something will he be forward enough to do something else, too. it is scary at times but we live in a scary world."

Lunsford also says he's motivated by the national media which he says is pro-Obama. The McCain KKK image is being celebrated as a "hit" on the internet. Lunsford expects a negative reaction to this, although he hasn't gotten any complaints. Article source

Video of the story above

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I agree with Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation

This is what is being discussed in the video above:
Congresswoman Michelle Bachman speaks for Americans of her type

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Barack Obama speaking about coming together

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In a recent appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman," actress Tina Fey discussed her now infamous impersonation of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

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We Just Need to Vote
Uploaded by ExFilms
When people at Barack Obama's rally began to boo about John McCain,
Senator Obama said
"No, we don't need that, we just need to vote, that's what we need to do".

VOTE OBAMA - BIDEN
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Your choices are

Travel to a swing state
Host a phonebank
Attend a phonebank
Make calls from home

UNDER THE SKIN OF A RACIST

IS FEAR IN THE DISGUISE OF JUSTIFIABLE BELIEFS

Not all racists think it is wrong to believe they are better than other groups of people based on their fears. Okay, they also probably don't believe it is their fears that are at the root of their racist comments or underpinning philosophy. But if you could remove vision from all of us, probably this racist stuff would be about as weak as the economy right now. And just how would we be able to give our fears a way to judge people different from us if we couldn't see them?

Racism is just a way to lift up how you feel about your weak opinion of yourself. It fills a need to put someone down to pretend you are better than you are.

The Star of Canada

TheStar.com | World | A nation's underbelly is exposed

AMERICAN SCENE

McCain Exposes America's Underbelly

David Olive posted online Oct 11, 2008

This is the week, Joe Biden said, that John McCain decided to take the low road to the White House. A partisan observation, certainly. But true just the same.

With increasing desperation, McCain and his presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, have depicted Barack Obama as a naive, untrustworthy, Manchurian candidate who "pals around with terrorists."

Irony is not given to Republicans. McCain attacked Obama this week as the cause of the global financial crisis, when it was the Republicans' sustained effort to remove the bars from the Wall Street zoo that culminated in the current spectacular mess.

McCain's proof of Obama's doubtful patriotism is the Illinoisan's vote against an Iraq-war funding bill that McCain also voted against because it was too pork-laden. But the ugliest and most potent McCain-Palin charge is that the Democratic Party's presidential nominee is not one of us.

"This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America," Palin told a rally this week – an allusion to Obama's skin colour, foreign-born father, and "exotic" upbringing, in Indonesia and mostly Hawaii.

McCain, as it happens, was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a quasi-sovereign but U.S.-administered jurisdiction at the time. The latter status negated objections earlier this year that McCain is foreign-born and thus disqualified for the presidency under the Constitution.

But Obama is blessed with the quality of growing on people the more they see of him – pretty much the opposite effect that Stephen Harper has. Thus Obama's improbable triumph over Hillary Clinton, and success in winning the first two presidential debates.

With victory prospects dimming – Obama has a commanding electoral college edge in states already in his column and others leaning that way – McCain has gone heavily negative, not on Obama's policies but the rival himself.

Even Karl Rove has said McCain steps outside the bounds of truth. So it wasn't a surprise this week that, with the GOP character-assassination machine in high gear, The New York Times editorialized that McCain and Palin "have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember, (entering) the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia."

What McCain has been doing this week is inadvertently exposing the underside of the country he professes to love. As Palin has inveighed against Obama's supposed intellectual snobbery, his fleeting affiliations with Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers, and his supposed disdain for the troops (elaborate praise for whom figures into most Obama speeches), crowds in Ohio, Florida and elsewhere this week have shouted, "Traitor!" and "Kill him!"

Palin has made no effort to restrain these animal spirits. This is the part of America that time forgot. Where an angry white McCain supporter approached an African-American TV technician this week and yelled: "Sit down, boy!"

With his appeal to suspicion of "the other," McCain has identified that part of America not ready for the challenges of the 21st century – the very people Obama's policies, and especially his commitment to education reforms, are meant to help. These are the past and future victims of outsourcing, few with better than a high school certificate, who will be left behind in a global, knowledge-based economy. Obama grasps the implications, proposing steps to revive U.S. competitiveness. McCain exploits them as a wedge issue.

In the twilight of his career in presidential politics, McCain is shaping a legacy for himself not as a problem-solver, but one hopes as the last White House candidate determined to showcase for the world the worst of America.

David Olive's American Scene appears Saturdays in World & Comment.

Included here is one comment to the above article that makes a substantial point:

Blowback

My fortune cookie yesterday said "Do not release tigers if you live in the forest" a sort of "Glass houses" admonition. For every attack McCain has sent he is many times more vulnerable to worse stories. Obama knows old extremists, McCain and Palin are on stage with current ones. Obama has a crazy pastor. McCain & Palin are one stage with several who are very much worse, while they are there. It goes on and on.

Posted by FreeDem at 9:51 AM Saturday, October 11 2008

Below is a link to an interesting article from Australia's Sydney Morning Herald

The Weight Is Behind McCain, But Obama Has the Votes
written by Dr Lesley Russell is the Menzies Foundation Fellow at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney / Australian National University and a research associate at the US Studies Centre. Dr. Russell talks about the weight of the voter and how it is parallel to living-in-poverty or not-living-in-poverty and how the pounds of the voter give a clue who citizens will vote for.

Australian Daily Telegraph
'Hate'claim fires up John McCain in US presidential race
There is a video with this article that shows Australians about the racism that has come out of the closet in campaign.

The above article and links are from the website Watching America.com ~ which gives links to articles from around the planet and how the USA is viewed from without. If you go to the bottom of the page, the articles are listed by regions and countries. If it is not in English and you want to translate it, you may try this google language tool.

Link to Watching America's collected articles and posts about the USA Presidential campaign

June through August 2008 articles from Watching America.com on Racism:
Racism is the Biggest Obstacle Obama Faces Kenya
Obama and the Question of American Racism Germany
Obama Support Riding on Racism Uganda

Recommended read by a South African blogging acquaintance and internet friend:
Message to America Where I Come From

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Barack Obama

Senator Obama's Economic Rescue Plan for the Middle Class

Senator Obama delivered a major economic policy address to lay out his economic rescue plan for the middle class in Toledo, Ohio this afternoon. He unveiled his Economic Rescue Plan for The Middle Class . This is a comprehensive four-part plan to deal with the immediate crisis that builds on proposals he has previously announced and includes several major new ideas. We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling…

CONTINUE READING

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BEST PLACE TO GET USA NEWS IS NOT FROM USA NEWS OUTLETS

After my last post and reading the excellent articles written around the world about the Presidential campaign at Watching America, I laughed and thought "wow, I'm going to read the news from this website. I learned things that I have seen no where" on the USA based news websites about our Presidentail campaign. Go down the extensive list at Watching America News Archive

Here are some
Germany:
McCain Unleashes the Attack Dogs
McCain Speaks but Says Little
McCain’s Speech: Tired, Old, Unimaginative
John McCain Plays John Wayne
France:
Obama’s Reply to the McCain Campaign's Attacks
McCain Tries to Moderate His Criticism of Obama
Israel:
Where Obama was Soaring, McCain was Sobering
Egypt:
McCain-Palin Ticket Chills Arabs, Muslims
Spain
Teen Pregnancy Brings Normalcy to McCain
Great Britain
McCain Caught in Web of Lies
Jordan
John McCain’s Folly
Slovakia
McCain Campaign Distorts Truth in Ad Campaign
Russia
Putin blasts US for financial crisis
Ireland
McCain Rocked By Freddie Mac Revelations
Saudi Arabia
Obama, McCain: Time to Get Serious


From Great Britain Independent.co.uk

Matthew Norman: The peculiar tragedy of this flawed hero, John McCain

Original source and credit: www.independent.co.uk/commentators/matthew-normanml

This bulbous oblong of coiled rage came across as an appalling old waxwork

Friday, 10 October 2008

For one whose single rhetorical flourish is the gratingly incessant appellation "My friends", John McCain has very few left. The roll call shrinks by the day as his bamboozled campaign grows nastier, and if the decline maintains its trajectory this year's Friends of McCain Thanksgiving Dinner in Arizona will be held, in homage to his naval career, in a solo canoe. By then, even the Clintons will have baled out because, barring a malevolent miracle, Barack Obama will be President-Elect, and Senator McCain's value to them as Oval Office seat-warmer until 2012 will have gone the way of Lehman Brothers. Even his wife, Cindy, can barely tolerate his presence, judging by the body language at the end of Tuesday's debate in St Louis. As they gingerly embraced, you sensed her wondering whether seven houses will provide a sufficient cordon sanitaire from each other's company come 5 November.

This debate was a riot of paradox, being at once both turgid and captivating, meaningless and hugely significant. As an aural event, it was tedious. Obama was much the more lucid, especially on healthcare and foreign policy regarding Pakistan, but McCain held his own on the economy (or about as well as any candidate advocating $300bn in tax breaks for large corporations and their CEOs could expect to do at this point in US fiscal history).

It was visually that this debate really mattered and, while it is too soon to divine public reaction from the polls, one suspects it went a fair way to securing Obama the White House in the absence of monstrous scandal: Barack and Britney caught in flagrante delicto at an Osama bin Laden fundraiser perhaps; Michelle giving OJ Simpson the Black Power salute on visiting day at the penitentiary; Russia unilaterally reviving the Warsaw Pact; or the detonation of a radioactive device on Pennsylvania Avenue.

McCain looked simply dreadful. Sallow, fatigued, hunched, tentative and miserable, this bulbous oblong of coiled rage came across as what the Prince of Wales knows as an appalling old waxwork. The clinching image, I think, was the rear overhead shot, as he made staccato movements across the stage that highlighted the large circle of hairlessness on his head. No bald man has won a general election in Britain or the US in the television age (Dwight Eisenhower was the last Anglo-American alopecian victor back in 1956) and this one is now a very long shot to buck the trend.

So much for this one, and on to "that one"... the most memorable moment of the debate season thus far. Flailing about idiotically in the quest to portray Obama as the Bush-Cheney cheerleader in contrast to his maverick self, Senator McCain mentioned an energy bill that emerged from the White House. "You know who voted for it? You might never know," he said, and then, without turning to face Obama, he flipped an arm in the younger man's direction. "That one," he added, lest any doubt remain.

We could argue until Doomsday whether "that one" was a rung or two down the offensiveness ladder from "uppity". My feeling is that it falls into that vast category of Things White People Don't Think Are Remotely Racist But Wouldn't Say In A Million Years About Other White People. Certainly, you can't imagine McCain using it of Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.

But racism, while still a small, nagging threat to Obama's chances, is a red herring here. What was so revealing about "that one" was that it crystallised the uncontainable disdain that is annihilating McCain's reputation. It isn't undermining his candidacy, because the economic mayhem and his volatile reaction to it has already done that. Yet his inability to show Obama common courtesy is unveiling him to a previously admiring electorate as a mean-spirited, cantankerous old git. If the repeated use of "old" appears ageist, so be it. Everything about McCain's dismissive attitude to Obama is geriatric. In fact he is only 72, which these days is anything but old. My father is McCain's senior by a year or two, and could pass for his son. I have friends in their mid-80s whom I think of as contemporaries because there is nothing remotely retrograde about their perspective on life.

For all his energy, on the other hand, McCain could pass for 92 because he radiates the sourness of the crotchety Meldrovian grump, slumped in a high-backed, plastic chair snarling "dunno they're born" whenever a middle-aged politician appears on the telly. Everything about his debate demeanour bespeaks a man struggling mightily to subjugate his rage that, after all he gave up in the Hanoi Hilton – his freedom, health and, as seems increasingly evident, a portion of his sanity – this smartarse liberal from Chicago swans along, not yet out of his congressional diapers, to steal the prize to which he believes his sacrifice entitles him.

So while Obama vaguely but empathetically seeks to assuage the terrors of Americans about their financial future, McCain seeks sanctuary in the distant past. He unleashes the increasingly gruesome Sarah Palin, Alaska's very own Cretina D'Evil, to raise Obama's extremely tenuous links to William Ayers, a Weatherman four decades ago, and the only people listening are the rednecks at her rallies whose shouts of "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" she is content to let pass without rebuke. McCain's flirtation with revisiting Tony Rezko, the bent Chicago property developer from whom Obama bought a chunk of land in a deal he long ago called "boneheaded", seems set to become a full-blown affair, meanwhile, and it can't be long before his surrogates dredge up the Rev Jeremiah Wright.

Like many failing generals, McCain is waging not the present war but the last one in which Field-Marshal Rove defeated John Kerry. He wants to shrink a truly Goliathan election into another Lilliputian one, a tactic as misconceived as making the race about mature and dependable character when it is so obvious that the only grown-up in the room is Obama.

What made McCain look so weak and hopeless on Tuesday wasn't just the combination of pallor, jerkiness, the tonsure and the contrast between how, when not speaking, Obama sat with commanding tranquillity, whereas McCain paced anxiously in the background like someone in a hurry who cannot remember where he parked the car. It was the image he projected of a man weighed down and constricted by the sense that the campaign he is fighting is unworthy of him, but unable to change his tune because there's nothing left to sing except "For God's sake don't trust this terrorist-consorting, America-hating naif."

It is the tragic hero's traditional fate to be brought down by a central flaw he cannot see in himself. The peculiar tragedy of McCain, a hero himself as his pandering to veterans ever reminds us, is that he well knows he is squandering his long-husbanded capital of personal decency with the sort of wild profligacy that created the economic catastrophe that should cost him the election. His entire sense of purpose and self-worth is founded on a romantic notion, bred in the bone of this son and grandson of admirals, of noble service to his country. This loss of his honour may prove more excruciating than losing the White House to a man that a year ago John McCain would never have dreamt of dismissing, with such vinegary condescension, as "That One". From Great Britain Independent.co.uk

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OBAMA - BIDEN 2008

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Show your support by making a donation of $15 or more today, and you'll receive one of the first Obama-Biden car magnets.

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RALLYING THE TROUPS - RACISM IN DAYLIGHT AND OUT OF THE CLOSET

Daylight on racism at the McCain and Palin town hall meetings and rallies

You can call it whatever you need to - but latent racism or ignorance is coming out of the closet. And it is not a proud moment. The world is watching and some can loudly say that they don't care what the rest of the world thinks of us. But you know that saying about the chickens come home to roost? We can choose not to care. But even today GW Bush said the world needs to cooperate and work together.

How does that work exactly? We choose not to care what the rest of the world thinks of us then we ask them to care what our President says to them.

Here is an article from Great Britain on our Presidential race:

Viewpoint: The impetuous John McCain

By Jamie Stiehm Political commentator, Washington DC Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7663091.stm

Senator John McCain's personal charms are in danger of turning into a liability as the former Navy fighter pilot looms large in the American sky.

In private the impetuous, nearly manic nature of the Republican running for president is exhilarating - in public it's beginning to look like volatility, a cause for alarm among friends and foes alike.

Aside from an unfortunate reference to his opponent as "that one", McCain gave a rather restrained performance on Tuesday in the debate at Nashville, Tennessee.

It was a strategy to show voters he had, as he put it, "a steady hand at the tiller".

But contrast the mellow McCain of Nashville to the warrior of the first debate in Oxford, Mississippi, where he gripped the podium with an expression of suppressed fury, and seemed on the verge of swinging a fist at Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Viewers could easily draw the conclusion that the candidate is dominated by his passing moods.

Collective crush

When I covered Congress as a reporter years ago, I lunched with the senator and his press secretary in the Senate dining room.

VIEWPOINTS Jamie Stiehm is a political journalist based in Washington DC, whose essays on the 2008 presidential campaign have appeared in the liberal, pro-Obama Huffington Post. This is one of a series of comment and opinion pieces that the BBC website will publish before the election.

There McCain showed me how he communicated with other prisoners of war in Vietnam, by tapping in Morse code on the table.

In a winning way, he also mockingly threatened to thrash author Michael Lewis, who had just cracked my heart. This light-hearted McCain "never met a stranger", as they say.

It's no secret the media had a collective crush on the straight-talking, disarming Republican when he ran for president and lost to George W Bush in 2000. For he was an honourable man, we felt.

One of his finer moments in the Clinton years was reaching out to a junior Democratic senator, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, to pass a co-authored campaign finance reform bill.

At 72, the snow-topped senator knows this is his last try.

The first sign that his temperament may be "erratic" - as Mr Obama now puts it - was when he cancelled the first night of the National Republican Convention up north in Minnesota for fear of a hurricane down south.

Some thought McCain needed a reason to keep President Bush (who was scheduled to speak) from showing up at the party. But this sort of thing is just not done - it's never happened before.

Unpredictable

Then, when McCain suspended his campaign during the financial crisis and headed for the halls of Congress, his move shocked observers on both sides of the party aisle.

He ran the risk of missing the first debate, an odd form of political suicide.

In Oxford, his dark side showed up. Obama, he insisted over and over, does not understand Iraq, Army General David Petraeus and the like.

In fact, McCain has curiously made the "surge" general a personal issue: either you accept his word as gospel and ask to meet him or you don't understand war and peace in the Middle East.

(That kind of public deference to a commander, by the way, is counter to the American civil-military code, and points to something deep in McCain's way of seeing the world.)

Casting the unschooled Governor Sarah Palin in an understudy role was McCain's most spectacularly unpredictable decision. Impetuous? You betcha, the woman from Wasilla might say in her downhome way.

The larger picture is that a sobered-up American public wants to look and listen to determine if candidates have clear-cut answers to their questions and worries about a frail economy.

'Brawling traditions'

But few know what McCain is going to do next on the national stage, which could make voters uneasy in these troubled times.

The next question: if he does show up, which side of McCain are we going to see?

A minor variation on this theme is McCain's last-minute decision to stand up the popular late-night CBS talk show host, David Letterman - who took umbrage and has not let millions forget the slight.

Letterman claims McCain told him he had to rush back to Washington, but stayed in New York to be interviewed by Katie Couric, anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke has described McCain's character as molded by the "brawling traditions of the United States Navy". There is something to that.

McCain boasts of his checkered record at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated perilously close to the bottom of his class.

By his own admission, he was a hotheaded and privileged young man who narrowly avoided expulsion. Later, as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, the lesson he seems to have learned over long years is to never give up the fight, even when the war is lost.

The son and grandson of admirals, McCain still has a swagger in his step and a permanent air of defiance. It's part of his appeal, but it may sink his ship in this rough political sea.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7663091.stm
Published: 2008/10/10

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Here is a website dedicated to

Watching America

The following text is from their About Us page

Watching America reflects global opinion about the United States, helping Americans and non-Americans alike understand what the world thinks of current issues that involve the U.S. This is done by providing news and views about the United States published in other countries.

It is not our purpose to find favorable or unfavorable content, but to reflect as accurately as possible how others perceive the richest and most powerful country in the world. We have no political agenda.

Watching America makes available in English articles written about the U.S. by foreigners, often for foreign audiences, and often in other languages. Since Watchin gAmerica offers its own translations, regular users of our site will enjoy articles not available in English anywhere else. We are a unique window into world opinion.

End of borrowed text

Here is one article from their archive page:

US Election: Why top Tories are turning their backs on John McCain

By Iain Dale

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/10/2008

All my adult life I have supported Republican candidates in American presidential elections. Like most Tory MPs and activists, I have wanted to be impressed by John McCain. I went to see him speak at the Tory conference in 2006, expecting to be wowed. Like most others, I left profoundly disappointed by his speech, which was pedestrian and devoid of inspiration. Maybe he was having an off day, I thought.

I felt McCain - as a maverick - could distance himself from the ideological zealots in his party who have done so much to turn it from a political party into a narrow sect. Many of us thought Sarah Palin could give his ticket the "wow" factor Barack Obama had given the Democrats. We were wrong on both counts.

Many Conservative MPs have travelled a similar journey over the past few months - a journey most of us thought we could never make, and a journey that has resulted in a decision to break the habit of a lifetime and declare our support for the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.

Tory MP Richard Spring, who doubles as David Cameron's envoy to the City of London, is one of many who have always supported the Republicans, but are now backing Obama. "It's important for America's reputation in the world to be improved and Obama can be instrumental in bringing this about," he says. "He sends out a signal of change."

Spring's colleague Andrew Tyrie agrees: "I have always been a Republican, but Bush has done so much damage to the project of the family of western nations that I feel only an Obama presidency can rectify it. We need something that is demonstrably a huge change."

Richard Spring estimates that at least half the Conservative Parliamentary Party would vote for Obama given the chance, something that would have been unthinkable in the pre-George W. Bush era.

Many shadow ministers remain publicly coy about their leanings, but it's remarkable how few, even privately, express any enthusiasm for the McCain-Palin ticket. Senior whip Simon Burns and the shadow business secretary, Alan Duncan, have both outed themselves as Democrat supporters, but few others are willing to go on the record.

One shadow cabinet member is a signed-up member of the Obama fan club, yet believes if he were to admit to it publicly, it would damage his status within the party. He likens it to the reluctance of so many Tory MPs to sign up to David Cameron's leadership campaign in the early days. "We thought people would think we had taken leave of our senses," he tells me. "Cameron and Obama are both agents of change, in a way that their opponents never could be." He adds: "The Conservative Party is always suspicious of change - until it has been proved to work."

Few Obama-supporting Tories seem remotely bothered by his extremely liberal voting record in the Senate. Simon Burns says: "Obama is like any true compassionate Conservative. He is focusing on helping the vulnerable and the middle classes." Another former Republican-supporting Tory MP, Ben Wallace, thinks an Obama victory is necessary to give the Republicans a much-needed jolt. "Young people on the centre-Right don't have a home to go to," he complains. "The religious Right has taken over the Republicans." He cites the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, who believe in fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, as the reason British Conservatives can feel comfortable about supporting Obama.

While Cameron remains a fan of McCain, he has been very careful to demonstrate even-handedness, as he knows only too well that Obama is closer to many of his own ideas and goals. Cameron's trusted adviser, Steve Hilton, has wisely been given the task of developing closer relations with Obama's entourage during his six-month stay in California. Could it be that the Tory leader himself is a closet Obama backer?

Original source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Additional links from Watching America

The Gulf Times of Qatar: McCain Contempt is No Laughing Matter:

...the most cringe-worthy viewing came when McCain tackled America’s bogeyman of yesteryear and reemerging cause for concern, Russia. Recounting a time that he met with Vladimir Putin, McCain said: “I looked in Mr Putin’s eyes and I saw three letters – a K, a G and a B.” This coming from a man who hopes to be the lead diplomat of one of the most powerful countries in the world...

The Independent of Great Britain: McCain is Deluding Himself

La Repubblica translated from Italian ~ Science, Environment and Stem cells: Obama vs. McCain

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JOHN McCAIN SAYS BARACK OBAMA IS NOT A MUSLIM

As a teacher, I set the tone of my classroom. Just the volume of my voice could inspire, lull or engage my students. The intensity of my words delivery affected my students. It was instantly evident. The dynamism of my delivery was reflected back to me. It was stunning to be aware of this while watching it happen on a consistent basis. I was the music teacher, so I had every student in the schools I taught in. And I had unique awareness of these things, because in music we use tempo, intensity, dynamic, various expressive styles, stressed beats, rhythmic engaging patterns and the changing of these elements within a composition to produce the music. I saw these very same elements while used in speech while teaching the lessons worked the same ways as in music and songs. My students responded also to the warmth in the delivery. This must have been true. At the beginning of class periods would bring hugs as well as during lessons. The elementary students reflected the warmth they felt through manner, words and my respect for them.

There was a fourth grade classroom teacher, that took this fact to the edge. She used fear to control her students. Then when she got called on that, she used a combination of demeaning put-downs with contrasting sugary, pretentious praise - this allowed her to manipulate her "troops". They were the most difficult class to teach music. It was like they were phantom people in a way.

So when I watched this week the audiences that turned out for McCain and Palin's rallies and their supporters' crude, unleashed hateful speech, such as: off with his head, he's a terrorist, a muslim, if you didn't do anything to stop him, consider how you'll feel when you wake up and he is President on November 5th, etc. - I saw the audience reflecting McCain and Palin's incendiary words and demeanor. Our words are more than mere words. They come from our spirit, go out into the universe and affect our world beyond letters and punctuation marks. They become our world.

If you want to change the world, you must consider how, what will your style be.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

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John McCain stalls his flaming rhetoric and speaks to his inflamed followers

John McCain at a campaign rally, October 10, 2008

Uploaded by tpmtv

Maya Angelou on the power of words - CBS

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible. Maya Angelou

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning. Maya Angelou

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Poem ~ Still I Rise by Maya Angelou


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Barack Obama is a US citizen, a patriot and a family man running for President of the United States of America

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VERDICT OF PALIN GOES AROUND THE WORLD

The following text is from the BBC website of Great Britain:

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Palin guilty of abusing her power

The Palins have made allegations against Trooper Wooten

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is guilty of abuse of power, according to a probe by the state legislature.

Mrs Palin was accused of sacking a senior state official, Walter Monegan, in connection with a family feud.

She allegedly fired him for refusing to sack a state trooper who was in a bitter custody battle with her sister.

The verdict of the state legislature could have a significant effect on Republicans hopes of winning the US presidential election next month.

Mrs Palin, who is John McCain's running mate, denies any improper behaviour.

"I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110 (a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act," investigator Steve Branchflower concluded in the 263-page report.

But Alaskan state Senator Gary Stevens, a Republican, said there were "some problems" with the finding.

"I would encourage people to be very cautious, to look at this with a jaundiced eye," said Senator Stevens, after it was announced the report would be released.

Injustice?

The investigation into the affair began before Mr McCain selected Mrs Palin as his running mate in August.

He [Trooper Wooten, pictured] didn't do anything under my watch to result in termination Walter Monegan Alaska's public safety commissioner Q&A: Palin 'Troopergate' affair

Critics say Mrs Palin used her power as governor to settle a personal feud.

Several Republican politicians attempted to have the investigation stopped on the grounds that it was politically motivated.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate says she fired Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner, Walter Monegan, in July over a budgetary dispute.

But Mr Monegan maintains he was dismissed for resisting pressure from Mrs Palin and her husband, Todd, to fire State Trooper Mike Wooten, Mrs Palin's former brother-in-law.

Todd Palin has admitted he did publicise what he called the "injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge".

But he said his wife then told him to drop the matter. Mrs Palin has not given evidence to the inquiry.

Mr Monegan said he simply wanted the truth to be made known.

"The governor did want me to fire [Mr Wooten], and I chose to not," he told the Associated Press news agency.

"He didn't do anything under my watch to result in termination."

Speaking last month, Mr Wooten denied being a violent person or having threatened the Palin family during his divorce battle.

"I don't go around threatening people," he told The Associated Press.

"If that's the type of person I was, I think - at least I would hope - there would be a lot more in my file saying this guy is a threat to society."

'False story'

The McCain campaign on Thursday issued its own report, written by its staff, stating that the Alaska governor was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

Sarah Palin denies any wrongdoing over the affair

"The following document will prove Walt Monegan's dismissal was a result of his insubordination and budgetary clashes with Governor Palin and her administrators," campaign officials wrote. "Trooper Wooten is a separate issue."

The 21-page report suggests that the allegations against Mrs Palin stem from a conspiracy planned by a former campaign opponent of hers, Andrew Halcro, and Mr Wooten.

"It is tragic that a false story hatched by a blogger over drinks with Trooper Wooten led the legislature to allocate over $100,000 of public money to be spent in what has become a politically-driven investigation," it concludes.

In what the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington describes as a clear attempt to deflect any potential criticism, the McCain campaign says the inquiry has been muddied by innuendo, rumour and partisan politics. End of BBC website text.

McCain ad says Obama 'too risky' ~ Report From the BBC website

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See Barack and Michelle Obama as they really are...

Watch the video, then sign up to volunteer for at least one day during the final days of this election. Voters won't know the truth about Barack unless supporters like you reach out to them.

Your choices are
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BARACK OBAMA IS NOT A TERRORIST, AN ARAB OR A MUSLIM - GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN ILLEGALLY USED HER POWER

"Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself "
Franklin_D._Roosevelt *

NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE WORTHY OF FEAR

NOT ALL PEOPLE WITH THE NAME HUSSEIN ARE BAD

SEE King Hussein of Jordan

THE USA WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN BEING IN POWER

The following text is from www.hartford-hwp.com

The relationship between the CIA and Saddam Hussein is a long one. In 1963, the Americans plotted with the Ba'ath against Abdel Karim Kassem, a man who, in the words of the writer Said Aburish, retains more of the affection of the Iraqi people than any leader this century. The CIA supplied lists for the Ba'ath to kill leftists and communists, and Washington flew arms to Kirkuk to use against the Kurds.

In Aburish's biography of the Iraqi leader, the author quotes many anti-Saddam Iraqis including Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the INC on CIA cooperation with the second Ba'ath coup in 1968. Later, in the 1980s, the United States and Britain helped arm Saddam in his confrontation with Iran only to turn against him over the 1990 Kuwait crisis. When in 1991 the Iraqi people rose against Saddam, the United States was fearful that change would put its majority Shi'ites and thus Iran in power, and US forces stood by as the Republican Guard crushed the rebellion. The CIA then worked on sponsoring a coup in Baghdad, a strategy that crumbled in 1996 when Iraqi intelligence infiltrated a conspiracy led by the ex-Ba'athist Iyad Alawi. Having rounded up hundreds of officers, the mukhabarat sent a message to the CIA team in Amman: We have arrested all your people. You might as well pack up and go home.

The CIA's half-hearted support for the INC also ended in 1996, when Saddam exploited Kurdish in-fighting to crush an INC presence in the Kurdish-controlled zone in the north. As Iraqi tanks moved in, the CIA fled and left the INC people to their fate. Washington washed its hands of the affair, and Chalabi noted that CIA officials are not known for their veracity.

In 1963, Saddam Hussein worked with the CIA to carry out the coup by the Baath party, which eventually brought him to power in Iraq.
End of borrowed text

The McCain-Palin supporters are claiming that Barack Obama will ruin the USA. They repeatedly say he is muslim, which is not true. Their anger is the kind that comes from rage. Rage is not rational. They are angry, but Barack Obama is not the source of their anger. It is transference and from past fears

Transference is a phenomenon characterized by unconscious redirection of feelings for one person to another...a reproduction of emotions relating to repressed experiences, especially of childhood, and the substitution of another person ... for the original object of the repressed impulses.

* "Franklin D. Roosevelt had campaigned against Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential election...his first inaugural address took on an unusually solemn, religious quality. And for good reason—by 1933 the depression had reached its depth.

Roosevelt’s first inaugural address outlined in broad terms how he hoped to govern and reminded Americans that the nation’s “common difficulties” concerned “only material things."

Source and the entire speech can be found at: http://historymatters.gmu.edu

There is no reason to have rage against Barack Obama.

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From Wasilla, Alaska's newspaper: http://www.frontiersman.com/blogs/palin

Palin abused power, reports finds

By Michael Rovito/Frontiersman

Published on Friday, October 10, 2008 4:26 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE -- The long awaited Troopergate report says Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power by violating an Alaska Statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

"The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust," the report says.

Independent investigator Steven Branchflower says in the report he feels former Public Safety Commisioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire trooper Mike Wooten was not the sole reason Palin fired him, but likely contributed.

Branchflower does say that Palin has the authority to fire Monegan.

The report that was released is only what's being made available to the public. Before the report became public Sen. Kim Elton said some parts of the report are confidential because they deal with personnel matters.

The Legislative Council convened at 9 a.m. this morning at the Legislative Information Office downtown. The council then went into executive session to discuss the Troopergate investigation report's findings.

A group of pro-Sarah Palin protestors greeted legislators as they filed into the office this morning. David Boyle, who admitted to working for the McCain-Palin campaign, called the Troopergate investigation a "kangaroo circus" run by Sen. Hollis French.

"I'm here to support a wonderful governor," Boyle said.

The pro-Palin protestors moved outside during executive session and swelled to about 20 people. By 11:30 a.m., the protestors had left.

The McCain campaign yesterday released its own report, a day before the Legislature's report was scheduled to come out, clearing Palin of any wrongdoing.

"The Palins make no apologies for wanting to protect their family and wanting to bring attention to the injustice of a violent trooper keeping his badge and abusing the workers' compensation system," the McCain report's conclusion says..

Media from seemingly all over the world, including from the BBC and an Asian outlet, are covering the meeting along with national media and local outlets.

The Frontiersman will update this story as more occurs.

Contact Michael Rovito at michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-3352.

Source: www.frontiersman.com/articles/2008/10/10/local

Meet Sarah Palin's radical right-wing pals

Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin's political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. "Her door was open," says Chryson -- and still is.

By Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert Oct 10, 2008

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See Barack and Michelle Obama as they really are...

Watch the video, then sign up to volunteer for at least one day during the final days of this election. Voters won't know the truth about Barack unless supporters like you reach out to them.

Your choices are
Travel to a swing state
Host a phonebank
Attend a phonebank
Make calls from home