That One?!?

By- Bob Cesca @ 11:37 pm EST

They say that Senator McCain’s strong suit is the town hall debate. If this was, in fact, Senator McCain’s strength, he might as well go home. Sorry… homes.

While not as smirky as the first debate, Senator McCain was jittery, reptilian (the darting tongue), scattered and overall just plain creepy. At no time was this more obvious than when he referred to Senator Obama as “that one,” calling to mind some of the not-so-subtle race baiting that has been the spasmodic, desperate tactic du jour for McCain and his airheaded coward of a running mate.

Meanwhile, while Senator Obama spoke, Senator McCain appeared to wander aimlessly around the stage — lurking in the shadows like a hissing “gangrel creature with an ill-favored look” — Gollum with a mic.

At one point, an African American woman was asking him about green jobs and he turned his back on her — skulking off towards his podium presumably to pop another Ativan or whatever made him sleepily whisper many of his answers. This disrespectful gesture was on the heels of McCain correcting an African American audience member on “bailout” versus “rescue,” and foreshadowed McCain’s flat out refusal to shake Senator Obama’s hand.

Senator Obama, meanwhile, was sharp, cool and presidential. And he hit McCain hard on foreign policy — among other things, questioning McCain’s judgment on Iraq after McCain dropped his “Obama doesn’t understand” line. Senator Obama also let fly on McCain’s inability to “speak softly” on “bomb, bomb Iran” and “next stop Baghdad.” But where Senator Obama succeeded tonight beyond the undisputed accomplishment of his first debate performance was that he seemed to speak directly to you and me tonight. He spoke to our concerns about the economy. This is probably why, on half a dozen answers, the hypnotic CNN dial lines spiked off the charts.

At the end of the Bartlet/Ritchie debate on The West Wing, James Brolin’s Governor Ritchie approaches Martin Sheen’s President Bartlet and concedes defeat in the entire election as a consequence of Bartlet’s debate performance, to which President Bartlet replies, “You’ll be back.” Following this debate, McCain must know that he’s lost this election, barring some major national event. Indeed, he could very well have lost this one tonight.

Cross posted at BobCesca.com — Go! and Huffington Post

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Who Won The Debate Tonight? Obama Made A Clean Sweep!

Who Won The Debate? Clean Sweep For Obama

Huffington Post- Sam Stein

October 7, 2008 11:11 PM

The insta-polls, which provide viewers with a somewhat skewered but important insight into how each candidate fared say, by and large, that Obama scored a victory in the second debate.

NBC’s focus group of undecided Pennsylvania voters had the Illinois Democrat winning by roughly a 60-40 split. Frank Luntz’s focus group, over at Fox, showed undecided voters leaning towards Obama because of his position on health care. CBS’s focus group of independents had the Democratic nominee winning the debate at 39 percent to McCain’s 27 percent, with 35 percent of the respondents saying it was a tie. Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Democratic polling firm, had a focus group of undecideds leaning to Obama by a margin of 42 percent to 24 percent.

Meanwhile, SurveyUSA interviewed 741 debate watchers in the state of Washington, 54 percent of whom thought Obama was the “clear winner” compared with McCain’s 29 percent. That same polling firm had the first debate as a tie. In tonight’s survey: 42 percent of respondents said McCain was too forceful.

And the CNN focus group of undecided voters in Ohio had the margin at an even wider spread: Obama 54 percent to McCain’s 30.

A look at some of the specific issues that these Ohio voters valued suggest that they prefer the candidate who, at least on the surface, appears less on the attack. When Obama discussed health care as a right for all Americans, his numbers were through the roof. At one point, female respondents were dialing in at 100 percent approval. When he talked about using diplomacy in Darfur and pursuing Bin Laden in Pakistan, he again enjoyed strongly enthusiastic responses.

McCain had his moments too, mostly when he was discussing economic matters and propping up businesses to turn around the economy. His low points came when he was on the attack. On MSNBC, Nora O’Donnell charted how independent voters and Democrats soured on McCain when he said that figuring out Obama’s tax policy was like nailing Jell-O to a wall.

How solid was the consensus that Obama scored better tonight? Even Bill Bennett, ever the Republican optimist, conceded that the Illinois Democrat scored higher marks.

I confess I so much admire McCain, but I just don’t think the campaign is equal to the story,’ he said. “I just don’t think it’s equal to the man, it hasn’t been. … We needed a breakthrough, talking about the economy. I think he was a little better than last time, but he didn’t break through enough, and he’s behind. So it just wasn’t good enough for McCain in terms of what it had to be.”

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McCain Referred To Obama As “That One” (VIDEO)

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The Palins’ Un-American Activities With AIP

Todd Heisler/The New York Times/Redux-- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, at a rally in Vienna, Ohio, on Sept. 16, 2008.

The Palins’ un-American activities

Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.

Salon.com

By David Talbot

Oct. 7, 2008 | “My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (“Keep up the good work,” Palin told AIP members. “And God bless you.”)

AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. “She’s Alaskan to the bone … she sounds just like Joe Vogler.”

So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin’ around with?

Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, “When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don’t have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we’re ready to die.”

This quote is from “Coming Into the Country,” by John McPhee, who traipsed around Alaska’s remote gold mining country with Vogler for his 1991 book. The violent-tempered secessionist vowed to McPhee that if any federal official tried to stop him from polluting Alaska’s rivers with his earth-moving equipment, he would “run over him with a Cat and turn mosquitoes loose on him while he dies.”

Vogler wasn’t just a blowhard either. He put his secessionist ideas into action, working to build AIP membership to 20,000 — an impressive figure by Alaska standards — and to elect party member Walter Hickel as governor in 1990.

MORE

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The Debt Clock Is Broken (VIDEO)

We’ve Broken The Debt Clock (VIDEO)

Huffington Post |  Nicholas Graham   |   October 7, 2008 07:31 PM

In a troubling sign to say the least, the financial crisis has forced the U.S. to take on so much more debt that we have broken the clock in midtown that tracks the national debt.

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Secret Service Investigating “Kill Him!” Shouter At Palin Rally

Secret Service Investigating “Kill Him!” Shouter (Updated)

Daily Kos- by Eric Schmeltzer

Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 03:00:29 PM PDT

Good.

http://radaronline.com/…

The Secret Service is following up on media reports today that someone in the crowd at a McCain/Palin event suggested killing Barack Obama, according to Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley. The shout of “kill him” followed a Sarah Palin rant on Obama’s relationship with radical Chicagoan Bill Ayers.

• Eric Schmeltzer’s diary :: ::

I wrote about this, this morning on Huffington Post, after I had read far too many reports about the violent, racist shouts coming from McCain rallies, egged on by the rhetoric of “Barracuda.”

Certainly, I can’t say John McCain and Sarah Palin are responsible for the specific words that come out of some nutcase supporters.  However, I can and will blame them for setting the tenor here, and signaling what is and is not acceptable.

Let’s be clear – McCain and Palin are using some language that tells supporters that Barack Obama hates America, supports bombing America, thinks we are killers, that we should fear him because he views America like a terrorist would.  What’s a supporter supposed to think that Palin and McCain want to hear back?  “Bully for him!  Huzzah!”?

No, it’s hate speech, as hateful as anything overt.  And it, not surprisingly, elicits a hateful, even violent, response.  Violence and hate directed at Barack Obama.

And if the McCain campaign wants to say this isn’t a big deal, I suggest that they contact the Secret Service, because the Secret Service is now treating the crowd reaction at McCain rallies to be a violent threat against a candidate for President of the United States.

Are you proud of your campaign, Senator McCain?

Update: Thanks for the recs, all.  But more importantly, make sure your news outlet of choice is made well aware of this and demand coverage of it.

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Open Thread…

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things are going to get ugly soon

because the right wing doesn’t know what to do with a left that will fight back.  liberals are tired of turning the other cheek in order to seem ‘fair’ and ‘bipartisan.’  so with that in mind- i say fair is fair.

“My government is my worst enemy. I’m going to fight them with any means at hand.”

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that’s the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. (“Keep up the good work,” Palin told AIP members. “And God bless you.”)”

this coming on the heels of all of the proof positive that palin is unfit to govern her own family- let alone an entire state or nation.  i guess the only thing that she is relatively good at is whipping up the bigots in the base.  and doing so without apology or regret.

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Presidential Debate Tonight: Time Info And Analysis- 10/7/08 (VIDEO)

Presidential Debate: Video, Highlights, Time Info, Analysis

Huffington Post |   August 5, 2008 12:25 PM

################

NOTE FROM SUZIE-Q:

THE DEBATE STARTS AT 9:00 PM EDT AND YOU CAN WATCH LIVE VIDEO COVERAGE HERE

OR Live streaming video of the Presidential debate here.

################

Poll: McCain Needs A Game Changer: An NBC/WSJ poll shows just how much McCain has riding on tonight’s debate:

[T]he latest NBC/WSJ poll has Obama up six points, 49%-43%, which equals his biggest lead over McCain in the survey; two weeks ago, Obama was up two in the poll, 48%-46%. As NBC/WSJ co-pollster Peter Hart (D) put it: “John McCain finds himself in a hole no candidate wants to be in” — behind with less than a month to go. Remember, while six points might seem like a small lead, it can translate into an Electoral College landslide if this is what the margin is on Election Day. What’s more, while pundits (including us) couldn’t agree who won the first two debates, the poll makes it crystal clear who won: Obama-Biden. By a 50%-29% margin, voters said that the Dems bested their GOP counterparts at the first two debates.

There Will Be Followups: Ben Smith reports that while McCain and Obama agreed not to include follow-up questions in tonight’s debate, moderator Tom Brokaw wasn’t party to the deal, and hasn’t agreed to it.

At least six million questions have been submitted online, the New York Times finds. There will only be time for 15 to 20.

Obama Raises Expectations, Questions McCain’s Temper: National Press Secretary Bill Burton releases a memo touting John McCain’s experience with the town hall format, while also wondering if McCain will “continue his refusal to even look at Obama on stage — like in their first debate.” The memo also suggests that McCain will “launch his nastiest attacks” yet at tonight’s debate.

MORE

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Sarah Palin: Palling Around With Alaskan Independence Party Secessionists (VIDEO)

Sarah Palin: Palling Around With Secessionists (NEW VIDEO)

Daily Kos- by JedReport

Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:15:12 AM PDT

If Sarah Palin wasn’t a secessionist, then why was she palling around with them?

So here’s the question: when will Sarah Palin ever explain what she was doing palling around with the Alaskan Independence Party secessionists? When will she explain why Todd Palin — who plays a huge role in her administration — was a member of the party for so long?

Does she oppose secession now, if so, when did she change her mind?

The problem for Sarah Palin is that she hasn’t answered any of these questions, and when (if) she finally starts to answer them, her answers will be news.

So even if her silly new strategy were gaining short-term traction — which it isn’t — it would be stupid in the long run because her false attacks on old news about Barack Obama are reopening questions into current news about her.

But I guess that’s what you get when you have a ticket headed by dishonorable numbskulls like Palin and McCain.

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