You mean what he should have done last month?

Embracing Obama's economic plan with things as they are is like a family, facing a loss in income and deeply in debt, handing over the checkbook and credit cards to the teenage shopaholic.

Can 3rd party, independent and/or RNC ads run on the topic of Rev. Wright? It was reported in the WSJ today that McCain is still saying that's off limits...but we NEED to bring this up again. For God's sake, Hillary did!!!!

Neither candidate has a well fleshed out economic plan. Nobody does. We are in a free fall of generated pessimism. "Who is this man who would lead our country," is an effective campaign tool that will sway voters who show signs of waiting until the last minute to make up their mind.

Obama is attempting to coast to the election and that may or may not work for him. He is not answering the serious questions in a way that is understandable and he is thus leaving doubt as to exactly who he is and what he stands for except the empty rhetoric he has used to date. The problem with that approach is that this doesn't close the sale. Those who are going to back him because of what they project on him have already made a committment.

Yet he continues to campaign AGAINST McCain instead of for himself. The answer to that puzzle is that he doesn't want more attention on his record and thoughts. He believes he can win based on the Carter model from 1976. He forgets that his opposition understands that election maybe even better than he does.

The fat lady hasn't sung yet.

Both of those strategies, talking about the economy and the nostalgic and moldy Ayers/ACORN tack, mean votes for Obama.

In the words of a great American president, George W. Bush, "Bring 'em on!"

Re: the "Magic" nature of Obama's plans...

I really wish McCain had said that Obama doesn't know the difference between a Goal and a Plan, instead of the line about strategy and tactics.

"Last week a Judge Ordered Obama to produce his birth certificate, yesterday Obama's lawyers filed for a delay of the order.

"My question to Obama is, why are you paying lawyers instead of just giving the birth certificate document to the Judge?"

Why Is Barack Hussein Obama Paying Lawyers Instead of Producing Birth Certificate?
http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=808734

For God's sake, Hillary did!!!!

How'd that work out for her? :)

Seriously though, this association stuff is going to go nowhere. It's all on the table. Even if you make the quacky argument that it's a substantial issue worth discussing, it was played out by June. McCain is wasting valuable time and money if he goes that route.

Why Is Barack Hussein Obama Paying Lawyers Instead of Producing Birth Certificate?

Cuz' he ain't like us, tha's fer dayng shure. He's a pretty scary guy.

You know-

Why can't he-for the love of Mike drop that-

my friends line?

Every time that ties him in with the colloquial of the Senate.

The other guy that was doing it for a while was Joe Biden.

The other thing-he opens up all kinds of fronts-STOP for the love of god McCain attacking Republicans-attack Obama and do NOT do anymore commercials defending Sarah Palin's honor-noBODY in the general electorate-or undecideds care one iota about it.

Note to MCain:In fighter pilot parlance-

KNOCK IT OFF.

Stop following what the press does so closely-they're always low fliers and if you do that you are going to get tunnel vision and end up a ground dart.

How the hell do you think all the Angels or Thunderbirds die-when they crash?

Never ever have the press be your lead-honestly.

Oh and btw-yes the Palin pick sucks...

Quit drawing attention to that. McCain you are the top of the ticket.

OUT.

The problem is that McCain doesn't have enough time to 'out-change' Obama. Obama, having been first, occupies the 'Change' real estate in voter's minds, and they're not dwelling on the specifics. Maybe, if McCain could get somewhere if he had some 'wow' element to his change platform (note the lower case 'c', as McCain just ain't the guy that comes to mind if I'm looking for change to the status quo), but he doesn't and thus won't gain any traction.

Good piece, except the rightweb has been saying this stuff since just after the convention. And McCain does nothing. Because McCain cannot escape his cocoon of the 'congenial senate' that he's been in. It's why Senators lose. The only reason McCain is a 'maverick' is because he refuses to be a conservative. He has always refused to buy into the right and he won't do it now. Less than a month out I don't know why the rightweb is still wasting energy pleading with the man to do what he hasn't done for his whole career. No, he's a 'maverick' which means that he will continue to buck what should be his base. For pete's sake, he won't listen to his own veep pick who is more than willing to support and be supported by the right's base, why do you think he's going to listen to bloggers?

Pessimistic? No, I was pessimistic 2 weeks ago. It's Oct 10 now and the pessimism has become realism. Delusions about some big 'plan' that McCain is going to suddenly launch is, I'm sorry to say, desperation talking and reeks of 'just you wait - any day now we're going to roll out the fake birth certificate - the Michelle Obama whitey video, just you wait!'. Short of something that will totally invalidate Obama's candidacy, Oct 10 is too late to roll out a plan that will have any effect in swing states where McCain is approaching double digit deficits. The guy can't even win traditionally red states and you think he has a plan to win purple ones? He's in his 70s and he can't even win Florida. The "plan" was laid out just after the convention, spearheaded by Gov. Palin. McCain, since then, has done pretty much every single thing wrong - each and every one.

He made a big deal about 'suspending his campaign' and jetted off to DC - then was utterly silent on what was going on, allowing the leftweb and the media to paint his move as moronic and even damaging to the process instead of speaking up and hunting down every microphone and camera in DC a la Chuck Schumer and laying the blame at the feet of the Democrats. (is it all their fault? no, not all of it, but enough, and no less then Bush or the Republicans certainly, and the Democrats have had no trouble blaming them)

He went to the first debate and probably won on points, but was unable to demolish one of the most unqualified candidates in history in a debate focused on what should have been his biggest strength - foreign/military policy. He jabbed at Obama, but should have lowered the boom on him. But that sort of thing 'just isn't done' in the Senate, and McCain, like Dole, can't break out of that cocoon.

The housing market triggered whatever the hell this credit thing we've got going on right now that I can't even figure out (and I pay attention to this stuff and follow it pretty closely) that's dropped the market into the 8000's, and McCain promptly starts copying the marxist claptrap Obama's spouting and trumps him by saying the government should buy everybody's house and resell it to them at a lower cost - no word on if they get a chicken in their pots and a car in their garage to go with it. Well, he is a 'maverick' after all, right?

He gets into a public tussle with his veep candidate for pulling out of what should have been a competitive state.

No one can figure out what was going on in the second debate, which was supposed to be "McCain's favorite format!" and consequently he did no better than Obama. Again, congenial jabs at his opponent, but no effort to completely expose him, whatsoever.

I'm sorry, yeah I hate to say it, but 'wake up', McCain hasn't 'gotten the message' for weeks, he's not suddenly going to get it. For some reason his 'maverick' brain got a jolt of clarity a month ago and he picked Palin, but since then he's basically marginalized her and rendered her ineffectual with his own actions and statements. For crying out loud we're still reading weekly SNL updates IN THE NEWSPAPER NEWS SECTIONS! mocking Palin because of a highly, hell - criminally edited interview with Gibson. The local elementary school AV club could have done a better job editing that interview. Can you count how many days it would have taken for the press to print a complete transcript of Obama's interview on FoxNews if it had been edited so torturously as Gibson's was to make Obama look like he didn't know anything? I figure 1 day, tops and it would have led to firings at Fox. Meanwhile McCain is silent and instead his campaign starts trying to defend HER EDITED STATEMENTS, instead of pointing out what she really said!

Sorry for the length, but it hurts me to see people still pouring so much effort into this guy that has shown for years that he has no interest in supporting the conservative base. He's never a 'maverick' in our direction, his 'maverick' is a jerk to the left every time. I was right months ago when I said I couldn't vote for him because I couldn't trust him on any important issues - illegal aliens, judges, etc. because he was always more interested in 'mavericking' left than representing people like me. I was willing to vote for him because I thought the Palin pick showed he had seen the light. Well, I'm back to NV'ing the President line next month. You can have your maverick. If he had done what he really wanted and run with Lieberman we could all be directing our energy elsewhere, like Congressional races where it might do some good so we could try to limit the damage Obama will do. Instead we're not even getting that done. How many days, exactly, can you keep going "it's going to turn around any minute now, just wait, the plan's about to start, here it comes, today's the day, no, really, it's today, here it comes, here comes the plan, it's going to turn around"...meanwhile the polls are reaching the point where even DJ can't fight the inertia anymore, no matter how bad the polls are, at some point no matter how you structure the poll or who you ask, when everyone you blindly call or speak to says 'obama' it's probably true.

Commence voting my comment down, now, if it will make you feel better or if you think 'the plan' is about to spring into action. Funny, all the other 'mavericks' like McCain in Congress go by another name...RINO.

Falze,
Your comment was long so I may be forgetting a point or two, but I think I pretty much agree with everything in it. McCain should have been doing this stuff all along and I frankly don't believe he will all of a sudden start doing them now. I think I am most disappointed by the American people who say they don't trust the media, but believe everything it feeds them about the candidates. It is frustrating that anyone would be stupid enough, or ignorant enough of Obama's record, to believe him now when he says he wants to cut taxes. I have to fault McCain though. We ALWAYS have to combat media that will magnify any remotely bad piece of news about a Republican (whether it is true or not) and ignore illegal, immoral and unethical activity by Dems. We are used to that extreme disadvantage and can only win when we go over the heads of the MSM. The only way we can do that is to take full advantage of forums like the debates where we can speak directly to the American people. Those on the left like to use the "McSame" line, but they are referring to McCain and Bush. What is more likely is that most voters think McCain and Obama are enough the same that it really doesn't matter which of them they pick and when offered something new and different they will choose that unless they are convinced it would be too risky or dangerous. McCain has not been able to explain to the voters just how risky and dangerous an Obama presidency would be.

Why Is Barack Hussein Obama Paying Lawyers Instead of Producing Birth Certificate?

He did produce it. My guess is he just doesn't want to produce it to some wacko lawyer.

Keep pushing these conspiracy nut issues. Hey, maybe McCain should raise this question at the next debate!

The best thing for McCain to do is stop being Sean Hannity's and Rush Limbaugh's parrot.

Maybe some truth, for once, could actually help him.

But, sadly, as the rally in Bethlehem, PA shows, the McCain true believers prefer to
believe all the Bullshite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVuBcJ7ijP8

_ _ _
/ \|_ _.._ _ _. / \ (_)
\_/|_)(_|| | |(_| \_/ (_)

"I think I am most disappointed by the American people who say they don't trust the media, but believe everything it feeds them about the candidates."

Bingo, Lorie. Bingo.

It's real simple what McCain needs to do: Stop acting like he's running for a f***ing seat on the city council by playing nice guy politics and start acting like he's running for POTUS.

So after the tax increase for those who make more than $250K a years, we have the opportunity to understand trickle down taxes.

Now people who make that kind of money are not stupid, by definition, except for a select group of professional athletes. So given that information, what would someone who makes that kind of money do to maintain their standard of living?

Good question, glad you asked :-)

Doctor answer:

"I cut back on the medicare patients I see because they pay less. Maybe I let go one of aides. I charge more for non-insured. I can't change medicate payments and I have a contract with insurance companies, so those payments stay the same. I see a few more patients a day than I would like to see. Oh well, that means I spend less money on golf."

Lawyer answer:

"I barely make that now. Any tax would eat into me pretty good. So I just cut back a bit and stay below the threshold."

Business owner:

"Fifing, %^$#@))), idiot, who are the *&%$#) stupid *&)$## that voted *((&^&$ - [you get the picture] I have to lay off people and cut back on benefits."

Business owner:

"Raise prices, what else? So will everybody else who SELLS GROCERIES! The chains will follow along because they have executives to pay who make that kind of money."

Employee:

"Get a raise. I make a lot of money for the company and I am not going to take the hit."

Real Estate Agent:

"I made a ton of money the last few years. It doesn't matter this year and maybe next."

From what I can figure out, the "Magic" behind Obama's plan is for the increase in taxes to "Trickle Down" to the level where those who pay it can't pass it on.

Fewer choices for medicare, higher prices for the rest of us. What a plan.

Now if I can figure this out, me being an old fart living in a small West Texas town, why can't all those so-called smart guys who work in Washington, run Obama's campaign or McCain's?

Meanwhile McCain is silent and instead his campaign starts trying to defend HER EDITED STATEMENTS, instead of pointing out what she really said!

There's an easy way to address this. Have her do a press conference. Since she was picked, she's done... well, zero of them.

Falze (#11):

Amen, brother. I've been trying to tell people that this was over when the primaries were done. The Palin selection was a surprisingly good move, and he's wasting the momentum gained from it.

You cannot beat liberals by trying to out-liberal them. McCain is liberal lite.

It. Is. OVER.

I'm at stage 5 in the Kubler-Ross model. I suggest everybody else get there too and start looking forward to 2012.

McCain could kill two birds with one stone and say he would work to repay the $700 billion (and counting) taxpayer debt with AGGRESSIVE drilling. Afterall, that's the figure thrown out by T-Bone Pickpocket about the $$ that leaves our country annually.

Almost everything a candidate does at this late date is vetted through focus groups and private polling. The election will be decided by a relatively small number of people in a dozen states.

Now *I* know what *I* want to hear. And *I* know what *I* think those undecided votes in a dozen states want to hear. Uh, no I don't. I know what I want to hear from the POV of *MY* political leanings. I haven't a clue about anything else.

McCain switched around his staff. He now has in place several who either know what they are doing or they don't. But they are guided by the results of polling and focus groups, so they do what that research tells them works best.

While the true believers, the ones who hate or have no respect for Obama, would like for McCain to go about making mush of the far left and the far left's candidate, that just might lose the election instead of winning it. McCain knocked Obama for not understanding the difference between a stratecy and a tactic.

Ok, that means McCain thinks he understands.

Here are a couple of interesting questions:

Why are the ones who haven't made up their minds by now, still hanging in there?

Who are they? Do they have an ideological point of view? What voting group do they occupy, and by that I mean age, race, economic circumstance, religion, location, etc.?

More important, what message appeals to them?

Test various messages and see what sticks. McCain is fighting an unbelievably uphill battle with an unpopular President and an economy going in the tank. To win, he has to play it exactly right with no margin for error.

I know what *I* would like to hear, but that doesn't mean that what *I* would like to hear will sway even *ONE* of the voters who now hold the election in their hands.

The fat lady hasn't sung yet.

Brian, shut the hell up. Your answer to how to respond to partisan hack press coverage is to have more exposure to partisan hack press coverage? Fail. Effort needs improvement.

Your answer to how to respond to partisan hack press coverage is to have more exposure to partisan hack press coverage?

No, my answer to accused edited press coverage is to have unedited press coverage. Isn't that what you want?

bitter:

There is no immediate fix using offshore drilling. All of the rigs that work in shallow to deep water are under contract (mostly in Brazil) for many years ahead. And it takes time to manufacture them. Yea, we need offshore drilling.

More than that, we need onshore drilling and we can get that by cutting through a ton of regulation and yes, State's rights. Sorry Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, we are going to mine shale oil right now as best we can. Oh wait, that goes counter to the conservative way of thinking, right?

See how easy it is to let ideology get in the way of common sense? The Libs do it all the frigging time.

We are in an economic jam. Yea, one of the seeds was bad housing loans and an inflated housing market [done on purpose]. And another of the seeds was the high price of oil.

And just as important, one of the big problems we had was a REPUBLICAN Congress that continued to spend, well, like horny Democrats. How many of us on the conservative side of the aisle voted against one of the big time Republican spenders? Ideology kept the Congressional Republicans from raising taxes to pay for the way, but it didn't stop them from spending as if they had. And of course the Democrats were glad to help them spend, it is what they do best.

It surprises me how rightists and their sympathizers carry on pronouncing how horrible and cataclysmic an Obama administration would be. They fantastically act as if the last eight years never took place ! The same tired old spectres of taxation, personal differences or governmental interference are raised, the crowd goes nuts and all discussion of pragmatic policy proposals get drowned out.

Face it, the right has had it all their way for six of the last eight years and a two year long rear-guard filibuster happening in the Senate. With total command of all the levers of power all the Republican party could manage was the steaming heap we get to read about in the daily headlines. None of it is pretty.

Some day the bitter little lump of bile and hate known as the GOP will be expiated from our body politic. And no, pigs won't fly the day after.

Here's one explanation for why McCain "took the gloves off" and then immediately put his hands in his pockets.

Top McCain campaign officials are grappling with how far to go with negative attacks on Sen. Barack Obama in the final weeks of what is turning into a come-from-behind effort. ... Some McCain campaign officials are becoming concerned about the hostility that attacks against Sen. Obama are whipping up among Republican supporters. During an internal conference call Thursday, campaign officials discussed how the tenor of the crowds has turned on the media and on Sen. Obama.

Someone yelled "Off with his head" at a rally Wednesday for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin in Pennsylvania. Later that day in Ohio, a man stood outside a rally holding a sign that said "Obama, Osama." At a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, someone in the crowd wore a T-shirt depicting Sen. Obama wearing a devil mask.

And nowhere is this emotion on plainer display than at Republican rallies, where voters this week have shouted out insults at the mention of Obama, pleaded with McCain to get more aggressive with the Democrat and generally demonstrated the sort of visceral anger and unease that reflects a party on the precipice of panic. ... the sort of hard-core partisan activists who turn out for campaign events are venting in unusually personal terms.

"Terrorist!" one man screamed Monday at a New Mexico rally after McCain voiced the campaign's new rhetorical staple aimed at raising doubts about the Illinois senator: "Who is the real Barack Obama?"

"He's a damn liar!" yelled a woman Wednesday in Pennsylvania. "Get him. He's bad for our country."
...
Such contempt for Democrats is, of course, nothing new from conservative activists. But in 2000 and 2004, the Republican rank and file was more apt to ridicule Gore as a stiff fabulist or Kerry as an effete weather vane of a politician.
...
Now, though, the emotion on display is unadulterated anger rather than mocking.

Activists outside rallies openly talk about Obama as a terrorist, citing his name and purported ties to Islam in the fashion of the viral e-mails that have rocketed around the Internet for over a year now.
...
The raw emotions worry some in the party who believe the broader swath of swing voters are far more focused on their dwindling retirement accounts than on Obama's background and associations and will be turned off by footage of the McCain events.

John Weaver, McCain's former top strategist, said top Republicans have a responsibility to temper this behavior.

"People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Sen. Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Sen. McCain," Weaver said. "And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."

"Sen. Obama is a classic liberal with an outdated economic agenda. We should take that agenda on in a robust manner. As a party we should not and must not stand by as the small amount of haters in our society question whether he is as American as the rest of us. Shame on them and shame on us if we allow this to take hold."

But on the other hand, there are many others, inside and outside the McCain camp who're saying, look, you're going to flip this around to the point that you're going anger Independent-undecided voters by going nuclear basically and the blow back is going to be too much. ... COOPER: There's also the question of ruling after this and bringing the country together. It's going to be all the more harder to do that whoever wins with all this anger out there.

GERGEN: Yes. There is this -- I think one of the most striking things we've seen now in the last few days. We've seen it in the Palin rallies. We saw it at the McCain rally today. And we saw it to a considerable degree during the rescue package legislation.

There is this free floating sort of whipping around anger that could really lead to some violence. I think we're not far from that.

COOPER: Really?

GERGEN: I think it's so -- well, I really worry when we get people -- when you get the kind of rhetoric that you're getting at these rallies now. I think it's really imperative that the candidates try to calm people down. And that's why I've argued not only because of the question of the ugliness of it.

Completely OT, but I just heard on talk radio that Bush made an announcement not long ago, and talked about the G7... and that's all well and good, but then the news announcer mentioned that Bush said something along the lines of asking the people (ie... us) to "Trust the Gov. to fix this crisis..."

I'm ashamed to admit, that after I heard that, right in front of my 3 kids, I said aloud "Oh, FU" (in much more colorful terms, befitting my history as an ex-sailor).

Anywho.... Just had to go somewhere to vent, and this is my favorite blog to visit. ;0)

While I am still voting for McCain, I think we should all prepare ourselves for an Obama presidency. Events in the world are partly to blame for McCain's slide. But his frantic actions/reactions to this credit crisis and really a lack of a cohesive message on anything other than Iraq is his own undoing. What Jennifer Rubin wrote is what many people have been writing and saying for well over a month now -- and still McCain cannot articulate anything. I never thought he would be this bad of a general election candidate but he is. But then again, Barry should be up in the polls by about 10-15% points up by now and he is not. So there is still a major part of the electorate unsure of his bona fides.

That said, America, welcome to the land of liberalism. You are about to learn a very hard lesson.

Dee: "welcome to the land of liberalism. You are about to learn a very hard lesson."

Dee, help is on the way!

The Ministry of TRUTH will ensure you have the news you need to remain content at all times.

Pesky blogs like this one need to be shut down...they clearly upset people!

TalkRadio must be silenced...they clearly foment discontent!

Imperialist outlets like FoxNews must be silenced...since they clearly spread lies!

Once the Ministry of Truth is up and running, you will find the news much more to your liking. If you do not, of course, it may be due to your needing some "re-education"...which will be made available to you at NO COST by the Ministry of Mental Health!

Rejoice!!

Dee,
I couldn't agree more. Obama should be well ahead of where he is now and the fact that he is not shows that he is not the god some are making him out to be, but McCain has had numerous opportunities to put him away and has not taken advantage of them.

McCain didn't make the case that the Dems were mainly to blame for the sub-prime mortgage mess, although he had dozens of quotes, votes and video as proof. McCain did not respond well to the financial crisis. Obama didn't really respond at all, except to perform horribly in the White House meeting, but since the media won't report that it didn't hurt him. McCain did not go after Obama strongly enough early enough. Obama is currently outspending McCain 3 to 1 on television. That alone should have Obama leading by twenty points, IMHO. I say that as someone who sees an Obama commercial about every 10 seconds here in NC (at least it seems that way). And on and on.

With Obama's ridiculous responses to questions about Ayers, which are either lies or accounts of alternate realities, the massive vote fraud being perpetrated by a group Obama paid $800,000 to "get out the vote," etc., McCain should have been able to make more headway, even if the media refuses to be interested in it.

Dee
I am hoping for an October surprise
cause you may be right unfortunately.

Lawyer answer:

"I barely make that now. Any tax would eat into me pretty good. So I just cut back a bit and stay below the threshold."

If this guy doesn't understand marginal tax rates, he's not a very good lawyer.

Brian, I'll say it again, shut the hell up, because if you think a press conference will provide unfiltered coverage you don't have a clue what you're talking about. The only unfiltered coverage available is a personal appearance, and those are edited to the press' taste the next day in their coverage.

Brian, I'll say it again, shut the hell up

Sure, if that's all you got, go with it.

if you think a press conference will provide unfiltered coverage you don't have a clue what you're talking about

Yeah, what am I thinking, having someone stand before live cameras! Those dirty libs in the control room will probably be doing realtime editing. Especially those at Fox!

The only unfiltered coverage available is a personal appearance, and those are edited to the press' taste the next day in their coverage.

A live press conference gives you everything you want. A widely viewed personal appearance with no editing. Any next-day spin could be countered with the raw footage. This is everything you want. Except for the part about having to answer questions.

Bingo:

"People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Sen. Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Sen. McCain," Weaver said. "And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."

Many, many people in past years were turned off by the strident voices of the far left loonies

Leave us not be strident.

Strategy versus tactics.

Just when I think you can't get any stupider...

Who, exactly, would be asking the questions at this "press" conference?

I repeat, you have no clue what you are talking about, therefore I gave you all the courtesy you deserve. I've wiped more intelligent things than your mouthings off my shoes.

Who, exactly, would be asking the questions at this "press" conference?

Who would you prefer, Karl Rove?

you have no clue what you are talking about

Says the guy who still maintains that a live press conference wouldn't provide unedited coverage.

If this guy doesn't understand marginal tax rates, he's not a very good lawyer.

JD != CPA

Troll, you're pathetic. YOU said that. Not me.

Fail. Effort needs improvement.

Yea, yea, yea. Obama is evil! The Dems will wreck the county! Fear, fear, fear.

Bull$hit! The Republicans have lost their right to lead. McCain has NO plan for what to do once he is elected.

Neither party has an answer. But that's okay. They don't have any money to spend either. The markets will seek their 'proper' level and all the Trillions of 'fake' value that have been lost were never there. Just like the Clinton surplus - accounting smoke and mirrors.

Until we the people vote out BOTH sides and replace them with regular Americans - we will get the government we have. BOTH SIDES play us off each other.

It doesn't matter which candidate wins - WE LOSE! Wake up and vote the incumbents out. Replace Them ALL. Even the GOOD ONES (ie yours) have to go.

I am all for the right press conferences.

http://www.ourcountrydeservesbetter.com/nationaltour/index.html

It doesn't matter which candidate wins - WE LOSE! Wake up and vote the incumbents out. Replace Them ALL. Even the GOOD ONES (ie yours) have to go.

ken, the first thing that needs to go is your sh*tty attitude. One thing at a time...

What McCain must do

Some things he could do:

-Have Palin's witch doctor cast a spell on Obama neutralizing his ability to connect in a thoughtful, real way with the American public.

-Join Palin in the Alaskan Separatist Party, secede from the US, and govern his own little country as he sees fit.

-Bend over, grab his ankles and kiss his butt goodbye.

PatD -

"It surprises me how rightists and their sympathizers carry on pronouncing how horrible and cataclysmic an Obama administration would be. They fantastically act as if the last eight years never took place !"

That's your eval - mine is different. After 9/11, the Democrats started looking at how Bush was fighting the war on terror, and realized they had a great chance to screw over the Republican party. All they had to do was criticize and hamstring Bush at every opportunity - and they could get back into their rightful position at the top of the political food chain. The media's done it's best to help them - ignoring, over the last few weeks, that it was the DEMOCRATS who fought and cancelled regulation on Fannie and Freddie, that it's been the DEMOCRATS who fought and cancelled any possibility of Social Security reform, it's been DEMOCRATS who fought hard to keep from drilling our own damn OIL here in the US.

So - why do the DEMOCRATS hate the country so much? Seems like everything they DO is designed to damage the country, because THAT is the only way they can really get at Bush.

Does it make any sense to burn down the house because you don't like the furniture?

The same tired old spectres of taxation, personal differences or governmental interference are raised, the crowd goes nuts and all discussion of pragmatic policy proposals get drowned out.

I'm sorry, "Bend over and spread 'em" doesn't feel much like a pragmatic policy to me, neither does promising 95% of the people a tax cut, free government health care, free pie in the sky, and eternal happiness forever. I've seen Democrats year after year promise the moon and stars to get elected - and then NEVER even attempt to deliver it.

(By the way, anyone seen Pelosi's marvelous energy policy, you know - the one supposed to get gas down to below $2 a gallon? How's that one working out for y'all?)

Why should I believe Obama when he's promising the moon and stars in THIS election cycle, especially after a crisis the DEMOCRATS could have stopped IF THEY WEREN'T SO DAMN GREEDY AND EAGER TO SCREW REPUBLICANS is going to end up blowing close to $2 TRILLION* before it's all said and done?

(*That $2 tril comes from the bailouts that have been passed, the damage done to the US economy by the Democrats blocking regulatory bills for the last 8 years, Pelosi being stupidly shrill in her refusal to drill for oil, and a host of other measures designed to hamstring Bush with no regard to other effects. And we won't talk about the blocking of Social Security reform - THAT is really going to run into the bucks. What do you tink? $10 tril? $15?)

You depend on the voter being ignorant of the issues, and being willing to accept simple sound bites screamed over and over instead of thoughtful analysis of the problems facing us. Sorry - but it's not flying any more.

Troll, you're pathetic. YOU said that. Not me.

Good, then you agree that that's the way for her to solve your complaint. Thanks for settling that.

"The Dems will wreck the county!"

And then the Country.

JLawson,

You may want to read David Brooks today where he accurately describes what has become a cancer on the republican party: Stupidity.

You seem to be a perfect example of this intellectually incurious, misinformed, uninformed, unaware misanthrope that he speaks of.

Other than that I bet your a great guy. Do your friends and family that are Democrats know how much you hate them?

After 9/11, the Democrats started looking at how Bush was fighting the war on terror, and realized they had a great chance to screw over the Republican party. All they had to do was criticize and hamstring Bush at every opportunity

Are you kidding? Democrats fell over themselves rushing to sign every rights-stripping and war-monging bill Bush and the Republicans put before them. What the Democrats finally realized was not that they could screw over Republicans, but that they themselves had been screwed over.

There was about two months where the Dems cooperated - and then they started pulling back. After all, Brian, it simply wouldn't DO to have a REPUBLICAN do a better job in the White House than a Democrat! And then elections were coming up - hey, what's more important anyway? The country, or making sure YOUR PARTY gains in power? THAT was a friggin' NO-BRAINER for them - of COURSE they knew what was more important and then the fun REALLY started!

Democrats are all about power and that's IT. Good of the country be damned - PARTY is All. Look at the way the Dems fought regulation of Fannie and Freddie - all the while 'enhancing' their rep as 'being for the poor' by mandating garbage loans... yep, it got 'em SOME good, didn't it? But we're ALL paying the price for that, and you want to give 'em total control of the bank? You're giving compulsive shoppers a credit card and dropping them off in Neiman Marcus - THEY have all the fun and WE are stuck with the bills.

All politicians are out for power - but the Republicans at least want EVERYONE to do better. The Democrats? They'll screw you over in a heartbeat to please a vocal constituency... all you've got to do is look at Pelosi and Reid this summer to get an EXCELLENT example of that. Give them a lock with Obama in the hot seat, and what sort of damage could they do? Don't give me that 'Look at what 8 years of Bush has done!' crap - figure out for YOURSELF where things are going to be going under a Democratic administration. You've got a brain - use it for something more than a damn buffer to keep your ears from banging together. Don't listen to the promises - look at what they'll actually be able to do - and ask yourself if they've got ANY sort of WORKABLE, immediately implementable ideas. Not stuff that'll be implemented a decade or more down the road - what would they do NOW?

If Obama gets elected, I give the Democrats two years before your 'party faithful' destroy the Party through their own excesses. It'll be like tossing a bunch of compulsive shoppers into Neiman Marcus with a shiny new credit card that they'll never have to worry about paying off.

And we're going to watch their spending spree while the country swirls down the tube. Oh, we'll get how what they're doing is 'Fair', and 'just' rammed down our throats, and the media will never notice how 'fair' and 'just' policies AREN'T MAKING THINGS BETTER!

And you know something? If OBAMA gets elected, I sure as hell hope I'm wrong about what I foresee.

Would you say the same about McCain?

Left wing [progressive] types:

JLawson has written a couple of home run comments. Read them for yourself. I will add on further comment:

Those who should have fought back, didn't.

By that I mean the professional Republican Congressional delegation. They tried their hand at being terrible at the Democratic spend strategy and the results are obvious. They went along with pumping up the economy via the housing market and that was an unintended bubble that has had its consequences.

The far left loons now have a candidate who will toe the line. Would you believe that Pelosi is considered a moderate in her own district? The Congressional Republican delegation put guys like Tom DeLay in charge and the unintended consequences of that became a malaise that diverted their attention from governing with effective law to meet the challenges they were supposed to monitor.

Distracted by a war designed to protect America from more 9/11, Bush did not exercise any leadership over the economy except to go along with the effort to pump it up to pay for guns and butter, just like LBJ did. And how did that work for LBJ and the country?

We ended up with two terms of Nixon and one of Carter, as we gradually slid down the slope of economic chaos. Think its bad now? Wait until you see the effect of an Obama Presidency coupled with a far left control of Congress.

You have to go back to Carter years for a perspective. And today we have far less leverage to do far left business. We have borrowed to the hilt to get our energy money back from overseas. We are in a recession that is the making of both Democrats and Republicans.

The way we get out of this mess is to forget ideology to an extent. We must find fiscal responsiblity and that has never been a Democrat strong point or even a Republican strong point of late. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are running scared out of their minds.

Good thing too, they should be. The Republicans show signs of waking up and smelling the roses. Electing McCain will encourage this and deflate the Democrats. Electing Obama will insure a one term Presidency as the far left does their thing and exposes them for what they are.

Contrary to popular conception, the majority of the electorate isn't stupid, just wrapped up in their own worldview. And the misery index is always a good way of predicting who is going to win. The reality is that Obama will have about six months to set things right before his approval ratings start to slide. He can only blame Bush for so long until it rings hollow. And it is going to take longer than six months to fix things.

I just hope he doesn't get there to see how it really works.

Here's hoping he doesn't, Larry. All his fund raising has been about activism. He will not tell the American public what his priorities are, he will side-step the same way as he did in the Gibson interview. His friends got rich on the mortgage crisis, and his thinking is mainly around dollars and cents. If you are looking for common sense and stern leadership, that will not be an Obama administration. He didn't go to China for money, he went to terrorists. I am not even talking about Ayers.

serious stuff... plaster topics are pretty sobering. In case you're interested, here's some neat information about debt consolidation I found helpful