Democrats Outpace Republicans in Early Voting

Check this out:

http://conservativesforchange.com/

Seriously, please stop this: "ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports:"

We know who's blog this is, you idiots.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/22/obamas-shoes-a-historical_n_136924.html

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS WAKE-UP....
CHECK THE NEW POLL FOR 10/22/08
PLUS I REMIND YOU:
THE REDNECK FACTOR.....
THE BUBBA FACTOR.....
THE SILENT FACTOR....
DON'T BET ON YOUR FRIEND OBAMA....

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

Subject: death of the newspaper media

Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?
By Orson Scott Card

Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist,
and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current
state of journalism.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper
in America:

I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's
journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before
the public, because the public has a right to know.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague
emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late
1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more
accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized
to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to
be able to repay.

The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially
would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these
people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a
house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house —
along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it.
One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried
repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such
attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political
contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to
make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were
allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to
contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support
increasing their budget.)

Isn't there a story here? Doesn't journalism require that you who
produce our daily paper tell the truth about who brought us to a
position where the only way to keep confidence in our economy was a $700
billion bailout? Aren't you supposed to follow the money and see which
politicians were benefiting personally from the deregulation of mortgage
lending?

I have no doubt that if these facts had pointed to the Republican Party
or to John McCain as the guilty parties, you would be treating it as a
vast scandal. "Housing-gate," no doubt. Or "Fannie-gate."

Instead, it was Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank,
both Democrats, who denied that there were any problems, who refused
Bush administration requests to set up a regulatory agency to watch over
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and who were still pushing for these
agencies to go even further in promoting sub-prime mortgage loans almost
up to the minute they failed.

As Thomas Sowell points out in a TownHall.com essay entitled "Do Facts
Matter?" ( http://snipurl.com/457townhall_com] ): "Alan Greenspan warned
them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury."

These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The
party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic
Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican
deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to
account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took
offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who
is the number-two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million
while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one
presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on
housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have
called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper
every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried
this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an
"adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his
advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain
of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to
the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

If you who produce our local daily paper actually had any principles,
you would be pounding this story, because the prosperity of all
Americans was put at risk by the foolish, short-sighted, politically
selfish, and possibly corrupt actions of leading Democrats, including Obama.

If you who produce our local daily paper had any personal honor, you
would find it unbearable to let the American people believe that somehow
Republicans were to blame for this crisis.

There are precedents. Even though President Bush and his administration
never said that Iraq sponsored or was linked to 9/11, you could not
stand the fact that Americans had that misapprehension — so you pounded
us with the fact that there was no such link. (Along the way, you
created the false impression that Bush had lied to them and said that
there was a connection.)

If you had any principles, then surely right now, when the American
people are set to blame President Bush and John McCain for a crisis they
tried to prevent, and are actually shifting to approve of Barack Obama
because of a crisis he helped cause, you would be laboring at least as
hard to correct that false impression.

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim
you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie
— that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and
the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame
everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as
you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be
insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances
of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth
even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what
honesty means . That's how trust is earned.

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He
has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have
swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin,
reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried
daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery
for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know
what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will
throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

You might want to remember the way the National Organization of Women
threw away their integrity by supporting Bill Clinton despite his
well-known pattern of sexual exploitation of powerless women. Who
listens to NOW anymore? We know they stand for nothing; they have no
principles.

That's where you are right now.

It's not too late. You know that if the situation were reversed, and
the truth would damage McCain and help Obama, you would be moving heaven
and earth to get the true story out there.

If you want to redeem your honor, you will swallow hard and make a list
of all the stories you would print if it were McCain who had been
getting money from Fannie Mae, McCain whose campaign had consulted with
its discredited former CEO, McCain who had voted against tightening its
lending practices.

Then you will print them, even though every one of those true stories
will point the finger of blame at the reckless Democratic Party, which
put our nation's prosperity at risk so they could feel good about
helping the poor, and lay a fair share of the blame at Obama's door.

You will also tell the truth about John McCain: that he tried, as a
Senator, to do what it took to prevent this crisis. You will tell the
truth about President Bush: that his administration tried more than once
to get Congress to regulate lending in a responsible way.

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton
administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and
blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe —
and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis,
then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack
Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants
were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and
it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we
can actually have a news paper in our city.

John K. Watts - Get over it. I didn't even bother to read your blog. Go write a dictionary. Obama 08

I'm a republican and I am voting Obama. YEAH!!! Let's go people. Let's show them some real numbers!

Yes, George. Bill Clinton still thinks Hillary's plan a year ago, targeting banking and mortgage, rather than spreading $300 billion to give some of you poor, less-educated people $600 cash to "stimulate" the economy, tanking the stock market by 50%.

John, the financial crisis consists of more than freddie mac and fannie mae. Not to mention the fact that these organizations donated to membersof BOTH parties, which you and other Repubs seem to omit. The two above mentioned organizatons only make up 20-30 percent of the sub prime mess..........there are dirty hands of BOTH parties. And let's not forget that the other financial institutions involved in this mess were greedy.
Your "facts" are all one-sided and fail to give the full picture.
One party is not responsible for the mess in it's entirety.

When people decide to separate themselves from a standing governing body, they ought to give their reasons.
All people are entitled, but not limited to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Governing bodies are formed to ensure these rights with the power derived from the people themselves.
When a governing body fails to ensure the rights, the people have the right to modify or abolish it, and form a new governing body as they see fit to ensure these basic rights.
This should not be taken lightly, but when the grievances are sufficiently egregious, it is the people’s right and duty “to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
These are the founding principles which gave rise to our great country.
Unlike other nations, we are a mix of cultures, races, temperaments, and means. Nationality in these United States cannot be determined by DNA test, similarity of our outward appearance, or accent. Our discrimination from others is defined by our belief in God given rights and the powers “we” grant to the government to protect them.
We are a free people with a government of, by and for the people. However, the clarity of purpose that gave birth to our country has been diluted and diminished. Too often those who “represent” us feel ordained to control rather than represent the people, control in a fashion that they believe is best. They are a voice to the people rather than a voice of the people. Government has become the beast that the people have to support at the expense of their safety and happiness when our core principles demand the opposite.
Within the next two weeks, citizens have a choice to make on who they believe would be best to lead one of the three pillars of our government. Barring some extraordinary event, the fellow citizen who will take that responsibility next January will be Barack Obama or John McCain.
Qualification is easily evaluated. Both are natural born citizens. Both have attained the age of thirty five years. Both have been a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years. They are both qualified according to the Constitution of the United States. It is the balance of qualities that are less objectively evaluated.
Neither candidate is without flaw. Indeed, the number of perfect citizens within our ranks could fit in a phone both with room to spare. But, what has each done with their mistakes and imperfections? Which candidate believes that government needs to be secondary to personal freedom and responsibility? Which candidate has demonstrated leadership and the experience of making decisions that affect other peoples’ lives … without the luxury of debate? Which candidate is more likely to stand for principles that differ with external affiliations or influences? Which candidate considers the position of leadership as one of privilege and duty more so than entitlement?
Barack Obama may very well be the best to lead our country beyond 2008. But the series of decisions he has made in his life, the manner in which he has contested this and past contests, the dishonesty and lack of candor about aspects of his associations and past activities, all raise serious doubts about his judgment. His relatively short history of executive decision making ability does not exclude him, but neither does it demonstrate this capability for the future. Finally, his vision is best described by the policies he wishes to enact. Few could deny that he believes an expansion in the role of government is needed. Yes, Barack Obama may be the best to lead our country. But, he may also be the worst leader we’ve had since before 1776. That is possible and the risk is greater with a legislature from the same ideology.
John McCain is also not perfect. The distinction comes when comparing how he has dealt with his mistakes and challenges. He has been forthright and honest. He readily admits that he is an imperfect servant. But, he understands that he is a servant to the will of the people. I have watched him on the floor of the Senate opposing and berating fellow members who chose to impart their will on spending the people’s money rather than letting these appropriations see the full light of day and be subject to debate the people expect. John McCain has dismissed the influences others cherish and cater to in deference to his duty. He has allied with those of apparently polar opposite ideologies when a greater good could be served. He believes in our system of government and has risked life and limb to protect it. These are all demonstrated acts not rhetorical promises easily broken. John McCain believes, and he has demonstrated throughout his career, that government has a limited role and ultimate power resides in the people.
For me, the choice is clear. For others, the choice is theirs. But, with the state of the world today, I would implore any who intend to cast a vote to do so based upon a careful assessment of the facts and your hopes for the future. Betting your life savings, your well being, your children’s future, on less devalues the great worth you have been endowed with by being a United States citizen.

seansatx,

if Zero had not ridiculed Hillary Clinton's solution to use that $300 billion a year ago to rescue banks and mortgage lending, it might, just might, have avoided the stock market meltdown.

Congressional leadership was so happy to do anything to promote their Affirmative Action candi, they brushed aside HRC's proposal and went along with Bush and Zero-bama.

Now, you got your retirement account, if you have any, down 50%.

Good luck, blind Zero supporters.

I agree in my small town in Florida, the lines were huge. As a republican I voted for the best team and that is NOT McCain/Palin. I will never forgive myself for voting for this women who has become a joke and is clueless. The truth is that Sarah Palin is not fit for this VP position. Its a sad judgement call on behalf of McCain. Thats why folks are coming in big numbers supporting Obama/Biden. I even saw trucks with confederate stickers and Obama stickets side by side. Folks Americans are rejecting Palin.

You forgot Oregon. We've been voting by mail for several years now. Ballots arrived last weekend. While tecnichally not "early voting," my partner and I have already voted. Too late to influence our opinions now.

MY ONLY VOTE WROTE:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS WAKE-UP....
CHECK THE NEW POLL FOR 10/22/08
PLUS I REMIND YOU:
THE REDNECK FACTOR.....
THE BUBBA FACTOR.....
THE SILENT FACTOR....
DON'T BET ON YOUR FRIEND OBAMA....

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

__________________________________

Well the fact is that this poll is flawed as they over sample evangelicals. Please read the article on huffingtonpost.com. So Obama is well ahead. Take it from a republican voting for Obama

Garry, I commend you on your discourse. You obviously care deeply about America and this is important for all people to understand that we should care in the same way. I however also cannot help but denote that you have a biased opinion of the candidate of your choice. You say that Obama may be the best for America, or the worst ever, however you dont mention the same thing about McCain and he could most certainly be the worst ever as well. Hes a very angry man, a man KNOWN to have fits of rage, some would even consider him unstable. Anyone who has ever crossed him in any way, he tends to take personally and is known to go to great lengths to avenge that supposed dissenter. In fact some of his own party have made statements to that affect. He also has had NO executive responsibilities, and his running mate is, very untested to say the least. That being said I wish you the best and hope that your dreams come true, if not however I ask that you not overthrow this government until you at least see what is to come, from one American to another, dissenting opinions well noted. Good luck!

@my only vote,

In AP poll, among registered voters Obama is 10 percent ahead of Maccain
47: 37.....Please check the detail.
They are using likely model in a traditional way.... they remove the new voters from the sample...

McCaniac, wanted to spread the wealth in 2000, he was quoted as saying that the people who make more money should pay a little more, but now he has to try to satisfy his base, oh what base is that, it sounds just like his campaign, not knowing where to go next. As if he forgot, we are in a socialist country, we as taxpayers own the banks. OMG say it's not true. Oh well, I guess the next thing will be Jeramiah Wright, if that happens, the lines will be 8 hours long for early voting here in South Florida.

THE REDNECK FACTOR.....
THE BUBBA FACTOR.....
THE SILENT FACTOR....
DON'T BET ON YOUR FRIEND OBAMA....

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

Posted by: MY ONLY VOTE
******************************
REDNECK FACTOR.....
THE BUBBA FACTOR?

ohhh yes! The true colors come out
of the republicans ugly heads, now
that they are desperate and gasping
for CO2 and methane.

To Zen and Jim.

It's the poll that the networks posted.
Check NBC and other networks.....
The race is wide open.....
We don't really know the outcome untill
november 4th....and it maybe a long
night....The current elections are
very different from any other election
in U.S history.....We know blacks will
vote 100% for Obama,BUT we don't really know how the whites will do......
Also don't underestimate those groups[
silent,bubba and redneck voters].

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton
administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and
blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe —
and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis,
then you are joining in that lie.

If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats — including Barack
Obama — and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants
were Republicans — then you are not journalists by any standard.

You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and
it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we
can actually have a news paper in our city.

Posted by: John K. Watts
**************************
Hmmm. If clinton put this in place, why didn't
the Republicans fix it! After all, the republicans
had 8 years to correct it! Six of those years had a
majority rule along with a republican president in
charge! (we think). That's one of the reasons
why we are getting rid of the Republican rule.
Hate to say it John, excuses are like arses,
we all have one.

Republicans are losers!..Republicans have messed up our economy with a stupid war based on lies and 10 billion dollars a month to support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans believe in voodoo trickle down economics..which is partly what has contributed to the current economic crises. Obama believes and is supported by most economists including Warren Buffet that you grow the economy by investing in the middle class..that is what he meant by spreading the wealth around..Most Republicans who say that Spreading the wealth around is Socialism are too dumb to understand that SOCIAL SECURITY is a basic tenet of the Socialism doctrine so you people should not accept social security or medicare. Republicans like to throws term around like Socialism, liberal, marxism et to scare people but it is not working this time.The democratic party looks like America(Multicultural,cosmopolitan) The Republican party is for people who are really rich and people who pretend to be rich(the Republicans who heretofore pretended to be rich are now throwing their support behind Obama because they are feeling the pinch like the ordinary man)..you saw them at their convention..all white people who had the nerve to raise signs that read "COUNTRY FIRST" after ruining the economy with the filthy voodoo economics and the stupid senseless war that Powell did not support but was given false info from Bush and his cohorts to report..as a good soldier he did so for his commander in chief..They used him to sell the war because he was at that time the most influential and believable Republican. When Powell realized how he was used he then resigned. We have had enough of the Republican crap and come November there will be a change. McCain is old and heaven forbid if he dies in office then here comes "Cheney in a dress" Palin..Heaven help us all and save us from the Republicans!

Good will always triumph over evil. John McCain will triumph over Hussein Muhammad Obama.

George, don't believe your own BS.

Obama is a socialist. He will never be President of this nation.

He wants to redistribute our money????
No way Nobama!!!

To spacerook1

Do you really want solutions????
REPLACE CONGRESS[HOUSE+SENATE]535 members including OBAMA,BIDEN,McCAIN,
THE ADMINISTRATION AND ITS CABINET,
WALL STREET FAT CATS,CEO'S,EXECUTIVES ETC.
Also OUTLAW lobbyists,special interests
groups, enforce the law of the land and
the constitution of U.S.A.
Without ALL THE ABOVE the status quo
will continue regardless who will be
elected in november.......

Women4Palin - I agree with you. Obama is a socialist who wants to increase the taxes of those who work hard and redistribute it as welfare.