Debate Is Over, Asian Markets Still Down

October 07, 2008 11:19 PM

Spinners are on TV saying whom they thought won.

Meanwhile, the updates from Asia’s markets, courtesy of the ABC News Business Unit...

Japan: Down 2.67% at the beginning of the debate; now down 4.54%
Australia: Down 4.06% at the beginning of the debate; now down 3.41%
New Zealand: Down 2.03% at the beginning of the debate; now down 1.78%
Korea: Down 2.72% at the beginning of the debate; now down 2.85%
China: Now down 2.52%
Hong Kong: Now down 4.71%

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (39) | TrackBack (0)

'That One'

October 07, 2008 10:28 PM

The Obama campaign didn't care for the moment during the debate when Sen. McCain referred to the "energy bill loaded down with goodies and sponsored by Bush and Cheney.  Who voted for it?  You would’ve never guessed, that one.  Who voted against it? Me."

Not a big fan of the "that one" reference, the Obama folks. They say, in the first debate McCain wouldn't look at Obama, now he's calling him "that one."

Just passing it on.

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (235) | TrackBack (0)

About That Obama Pork Request McCain Keeps Talking About...

October 07, 2008 9:58 PM

"While we were working to eliminate these pork barrel earmarks, he voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects," Sen. John McCain said tonight, "including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Ill."

McCain's right.

Check it out on Obama's Senate page, where he posts his earmark requests:

"Adler Planetarium, to support replacement of its projector and related equipment, $3,000,000.

"One of its most popular attractions and teaching tools at the Adler Planetarium is the Sky Theater. The projection equipment in this theater is 40 years old, and is no longer supported with parts or service by the manufacturer. It has begun to fail, leaving the theater dark and groups of school students and other interested museum-goers without this very valuable and exciting learning experience."

A minor point, but one I was curious about.

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (54) | TrackBack (0)

Cindy McCain: Obama Has 'Waged the Dirtiest Campaign in American History'

October 07, 2008 8:56 PM

The Nashville Tennessean reports that at a children's hospital today, Cindy McCain -- the wife of GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- said her husband's opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has "waged the dirtiest campaign in American history."

That's quite a charge.

Mrs. McCain was visiting the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University.

“What I have found is that it’s necessary to make sure the American people understand what we have to say, what we stand for as a husband and wife, and what we will do for the American people if we’re lucky enough to be elected,” she said.

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (144) | TrackBack (0)

The Great Debate

October 07, 2008 8:39 PM

NASHVILLE, TENN. -- We're here at Curb Arena at Belmont University for the second presidential debate.

Right now the dudes from the Commission on Presidential Debates are talking.

Meanwhile, an e-mail comes across my screen:

Markets are open in Asia ... and it looks like the sour trading day in the Americas has rolled across the Pacific.

Japan: Down 2.67%
Australia: Down 4.06%
New Zealand: Down 2.03%
Korea: Down 2.72%

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (57) | TrackBack (0)

Axelrod on Ayers, Keating, and John McCain: ‘The Bigger the Challenges We Face, the Smaller Their Campaign Gets’

October 07, 2008 3:13 PM

David Axelrod, the senior adviser to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., came back on the campaign plane this morning -- O Force One -- to chat about the debate and to set expectations (low for his boss, high for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.)

Axelrod said Obama is prepared for McCain -- who's been attacking Obama's character very directly this week, calling Obama a liar and a hypocrite, his running mate saying Obama is "palling around with terrorists" -- to keep that tone at tonight's town hall meeting.

McCain has "signaled to his supporters that he’s going to be very aggressive," Axelrod said, "that he’s going to take the gloves off.”

Obama wants to talk to Americans about the economy, said the adviser. 

"We’re going to talk about that, we’re going to talk about the issues that are important to the American people. But we’re prepared for a very aggressive debate.”

Is Obama prepared to talk about his relationship with former Weather Underground member/current education professor William Ayers, the previously mentioned "terrorist" that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been attacking Obama for knowing?

“The senator is going to be prepared to speak to whatever comes up if Sen. McCain or anyone else chooses to bring that up," Axelrod said. "If that comes up he’ll be ready to discuss that, but one hopes that the focus of this debate will be the issues that touch on the lives of the American people.”

Palin has been attacking Obama for comments Axelrod made that ran on CNN yesterday suggesting that when Obama first met with Ayers at his home in 1995, he didn't know the professor's history. The Alaska governor has been blurring what Axelrod said to make it seem as though Obama was claiming that he didn't know about Ayers' history until recently, which is not what Axelrod said. Not that there's been any clear explanation of this relationship forthcoming from the Obama campaign.

So, when did Obama find out that Ayers had been a member of an organization the FBI called a "domestic terrorist" group, and had been, for years, a fugitive from the law?

“I don’t know," Axelrod said. "I mean it was sometime after their first meetings. And you know, he became aware of it. I don’t know the exact moment.”

He wasn't aware of who "Ayers" was?

"Yeah," Axelrod said, "I mean, the fact is that like a lot of people who, you know, didn’t live through that era -- particularly those who didn’t live though that era in Chicago -- It just wasn’t. I mean, when he came to Chicago, Ayers was advising Mayor Daley on school reform issues, and that was his profile, was that he was an expert on education."

So, did he know who Ayers was when he went to his home in 1995?

“My understanding is that when he went there, he did not," Axelrod said.

Reporters noticed that clause -- "my understanding is" -- and pressed further. Did Axelrod ask Obama if he knew Ayers' history when he first met with him?

"Yes," Axelrod said.

And he did not know?

"Yes," Axelrod said. "That’s what I’ve said –- I answered the question when I was asked the other day. But no one’s suggesting that he never knew. I mean that’s not -- we weren’t offering that. I wasn’t offering it -– I was asked a question that you just asked me and just answered it. I wasn’t making an argument about it."

Axelrod said that Obama is expecting attacks tonight.

"He understands where this campaign is at and rarely has a campaign been as explicit as the McCain campaign has been about what their tactics are all about," said the adviser. "They essentially announced to newspapers that they feel like, if this campaign is a discussion of the economic crisis facing America, then he’ll lose and that they need to try to create a distraction to divert the discussion from the economy.”

But isn't Obama fighting mud with mud by brining up McCain's history with the Keating Five scandal?

"The Keating case is pretty germane to the discussion we’re having right now," Axelrod said. "The Keating issue was one in which Sen. McCain intervened with regulators on behalf of a financial institution that ultimately collapsed and the taxpayers were left holding the bill. Many, many people lost their savings, their homes, and so on. So, it is a germane issues, it’s not an abstraction. Now look, are there broader issues that need to be discussed? Yes and we’re discussing them. We’re the campaign that’s actually running positive ads. The McCain campaign doesn’t even pretend to make a case for John McCain anymore, they’re running all negative ads.”

Will Obama bring up Keating tonight?

“I don’t think he’ll shy away from a discussion of it if it comes up," Axelrod said. “The American people know who’s running a positive campaign about the future of the country, about the change we need, and who’s desperately throwing lefts and rights hoping to score a knockout because he thinks he’s behind in the game."

McCain, Axelrod said, has "turned to plan B, which is to throw as much negative out there as possible -- to send his vice presidential candidate out there as a kind of tip of the spear in this negative campaign.”

Axelrod said the GOP-pushed controversy about Obama's small donors -- that some of them have kicked in so many small donations, they've exceeded maximum limits, and questions about whether some of them are non U.S. citizens -- is another distraction. McCain discloses the names of donors who give less than $200; Obama does not.

"I know Sen. McCain may not know this," Axelrod said, "but you can get on the Internet -- actually, you can get on anywhere in the world. That’s the thing about the Internet. And you can buy a t-shirt wherever they live ... and we monitor those things as best we can."

Axelrod said it is "unbelievable ... given the times in which we live and the problems that we face, that this is how they are spending their time as a campaign. It seems like the bigger the challenges we face, the smaller their campaign gets.”

The Obama senior strategist said that the reason Palin has been campaigning in Nebraska, Florida, and North Carolina is because the McCain-Palin campaign is "being offensive but they’re not really playing offense. They’re playing defense." But he insisted the Obama campaign isn't overconfident.

"Obviously, we like the position that we’re in, but we understand that we have to battle every day ... If I took the polls to heart, I would have jumped off a tall building about a year ago when we were 30 points behind during the nomination, so we don’t get too intoxicated when the polls are encouraging.”

-- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (211) | TrackBack (0)

Doodles of Dreams

October 07, 2008 12:33 PM

Do you remember last year when Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., donated a doodle for an auction to benefit The Neurofibromatosis Association and epilepsy research? The doodle, of some of his Senate colleagues, sold for more than $2,000 on eBay.

Now we have a doodle from another campaign 2008 rock star, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

New Republic senior editor Noam Scheiber went up to Alaska to profile the governor and during a visit with Palin's former colleague on the city council, Laura Chase, found this document -- the  back of a Wasilla city budget which Palin doodled on in 1996 as she plotted her mayoral campaign.

She makes notes on slogans: "You would be my boss! No tax increase! ... Wasilla needs a conservative choice in leadership."

She makes notes on her resume: "Life Long Alaskan; Graduate: Wasilla High School, Univ. of Idaho (Bach. In Journalism, minor Politics); Wife, mother of three, Homeowners, Businesswoman, TAXPAYER!;…NRA supporter," "taxpayer!"

There's a close-up scan of the document HERE.   

**

Two policy items of note:

Planning out her campaign promises, Palin writes, "no automatic pay increase for the mayors position" and also "City Hall says it sees the need for an increase in sales and property tax to pay for some local politicians wish list. There is no need to raise taxes, Wasilla is collecting two million dollars a year than what we had projected when we sold the sales tax proposal to you four years ago."

Both of these are forms of claims she has since made on the vice presidential stump -– that she took a pay cut as mayor, and that she fought taxes.

The reality of both is more complicated.

"As mayor, I took a voluntary pay cut, which didn't really thrill my husband,” Palin said on Sept. 9 in Lebanon, Ohio.

According to documents released by the city of Wasilla,  Palin's mayoral salary did, indeed, drop from $64,200 in October 1996 to $61,200 in January 1997.

But then, a year and a half later, in June 1998, it increased to $68,000.

It went down again one year later, in July 1999, to $66,000 (still higher than her starting salary) but then it increased again, to $68,000 in October 1999, staying at that level until October 2002, when she left office.

So, for most of her time in office, Palin took a raise.

As for taxes, Palin at the vice presidential debate on Oct. 2 said, “as mayor, every year I was in office I did reduce taxes. I eliminated personal property taxes and eliminated small business inventory taxes, and as governor, we suspended our state fuel tax. We did all of those things knowing that that is how our economy would be heated up."

All true.

But Palin didn’t mention the sales tax (though she did mention it in her 1996 doodle) which did go up during her tenure.

Politifact has a thorough look at her debate claim, but the bottom line is that Palin supported a referendum (as did voters) to increase city sales taxes by a half percent to pay for an indoor sports center.  One of the ways that Palin as mayor was able to afford lowering all the other taxes was because the sales tax brought in more and more revenue to local government coffers -– almost $6 million in 2002, an increase of approximately 50% from the time Palin began as mayor –- a testament to the city’s growth.

“Under Palin’s mayorship,” notes Politifact, “the city also took on an additional $23.7-million in long-term debt to finance the sports complex, as well as for street and water projects.”

So noted. (Though not so doodled.)

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (176) | TrackBack (0)

Barney Frank Says Race a Factor in Subprime Blame Game

October 07, 2008 10:00 AM

The Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., yesterday said Republicans are misplacing blame when they target Democrats' efforts to expand affordable housing -- and Frank alleged there was a racial component to the criticism.

"They get to take things out on poor people," Frank said at a mortgage foreclosure symposium, as reported by the Associated Press's Glenn Johnson. "Let's be honest: The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn't hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people."

Frank, in August, told CNN that a new guiding principle for the housing market should be "we basically have to tell people who want to make mortgage loans something terribly radical: Do not lend money to people who can't pay it back."

Asked how the U.S. mortgage market got to this horrible place, Frank said, "We had too little regulation at a point of great financial innovation. Twenty years ago, most loans were made by someone who expected to be paid back by the borrower. And lenders who want to be paid back by the borrower are careful about who they lend to. Then came this great innovation called securitization. Securitization means that I lend you money and quickly sell the right to be paid back by you to other people. Well, when the lender ceased to have an ongoing relationship with the borrower, a tremendous amount of banking discipline was lost. And it was much harder to replace than we thought."

Why didn’t regulators step in?

"Back in 1994, Congress gave the Federal Reserve the authority to ban irresponsible mortgages," Frank said. "Alan Greenspan, as a very committed anti-regulation conservative, refused -- literally refused -- to use that authority. Congress can give people authority; we can't compel them to use it. Ben Bernanke, to his credit, realized that it was time to use that authority. So he promulgated a set of rules on July 14 of this year to prohibit a lot of the mortgages of the type that got us in trouble. If Alan Greenspan had done 10 years ago what Ben Bernanke did this past July, we would have much less of a problem in subprime mortgages...

"We have made a mistake in this society. The assumption that everybody can be a homeowner is wrong. We pushed and encouraged people into home ownership -- people who, in some cases, weren't ready for it. You can't act on wishes that are unrealistic without having negative consequences."

**

On that topic, the video of a "Saturday Night Live" skit that mocked Frank and criticized Democrats and some mortgage owners for their roles in the housing and financial crisis, has been removed from NBC's Web site, prompting myriad conspiracy theories among the conservative blogosphere.

(You can read a transcript of the skit HERE or watch a version of it HERE.) The skit singled out for ridicule Herb and Marion Sandler, who sold their savings-and-loan Golden West to Wachovia for $24.3 billion in October 2006.

Golden West, critics say, thrived by allowing borrowers to defer the interest on their monthly payments with adjustable rate mortgages, ultimately leaving borrowers with debt they could not afford to pay off.

Sandler spoke to the AP Sunday about his feelings that he's being "unfairly tarred."

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (206) | TrackBack (0)

Anti-Abortion Catholics for Obama?

October 07, 2008 9:38 AM

Coming on the heels of Doug Kmiec's new book "Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Questions about Barack Obama," Duquesne University School of Law dean Nick Cafardi has written an essay titled, "I'm Catholic, Staunchly Anti-Abortion, and Support Obama."

"I believe that abortion is an unspeakable evil, yet I support Sen. Barack Obama, who is pro-choice," he writes. “I do not support him because he is pro-choice, but in spite of it. Is that a proper moral choice for a committed Catholic? As one of the inaugural members of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board on clergy sexual abuse, and as a canon lawyer, I answer with a resounding yes."

Cafardi writes that anti-abortion activists "have lost the abortion battle -- permanently. A vote for Sen. John McCain does not guarantee the end of abortion in America. Not even close."

So why Obama? McCain and Obama agree on embryonic stem-cell research, he says, so that's a wash.

"But what about an unjust war? In 2003, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) said flatly that 'reasons sufficient for unleashing a war against Iraq did not exist.' McCain voted for it; Obama opposed it.

"What about torture? There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," according to Antonio Taguba, the retired major general who investigated abuses in Iraq. Obama opposes the use of torture in all cases; McCain, himself a victim of torture, voted to allow the CIA to use so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- a euphemism for torture."

William A. Donohue, president and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, responds today with an essay he calls, "tongue-in-cheek," "I'm Catholic, Staunchly Anti-Racist, and Support David Duke."

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (89) | TrackBack (0)

The Tone Being Created

October 07, 2008 8:02 AM

"Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness," writes the Washington Post's Dana Milbank.  "In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her 'less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.' At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, 'Sit down, boy.'...

"Palin, speaking to a sea of 'Palin Power' and 'Sarahcuda' T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. 'One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,' she said. ('Boooo!' said the crowd.) 'And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, "launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,"' she continued. ('Boooo!' the crowd repeated.)

"'Kill him!' proposed one man in the audience."

This does not appear an isolated incident. Yesterday at a McCain rally, after McCain asked "Who is the real Barack Obama?" a member of the audience yelled "Terrorist!" And so on.

Getting ugly out there.

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (337) | TrackBack (0)

New McCain TV Ad Calls Obama a Hypocritical Liar

October 07, 2008 7:52 AM

"Who is Barack Obama?" asks the narrator in Sen. John McCain's latest attack ad.

A TV within the ad then shows a local Missouri TV report, that the reporter has since backed away from (more on that HERE), in which the anchor intones: "Obama's presidential campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad."

"How hypocritical," says the narrator. "Obama's Social Security attack was called 'a falsehood.' His health care attack ... 'misleading.' Obama's stem cell attack ... 'not true.' Barack Obama. He promised better. He lied."

The criticisms of the Obama ads are all on target, taken from the links above, the last one of which is this blog.

Is name-calling effective?

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (103) | TrackBack (0)

New Obama TV Ad Hits McCain for Trying to Change the Subject

October 07, 2008 7:12 AM

It's called "Subject" and it's all the stronger for that ill-conceived quote an unnamed McCain senior adviser gave the New York Daily News.

The script reads:

ANNOUNCER: He’s out of ideas. Out of touch. And running out of time. But with no plan to lift our economy up, John McCain wants to tear Barack Obama down. With smears that have been proven false.

"Why? McCain’s own campaign admits that if the election is about the economy, he’s going to lose.

(shows New York Daily News quote from yesterday: "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we’re going to lose")

"But as Americans lose their jobs, homes and savings, it’s time for a president who’ll change the economy. Not change the subject."

- jpt

October 7, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (39) | TrackBack (0)

Just Saw This Attack Ad on TV Here in North Carolina

October 06, 2008 10:46 PM

From some outfit call "RightChange.com" ... heard of it?

The ad can be watched HERE.

The script: "Fannie Mae. Freddie Mac. Dodd. Frank. Raines. Johnson. Pelosi. Barack Obama. They defended Fannie and Freddie. AWOL on reform.

"Raines and Johnson ran Fannie, pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars. Fannie and Freddie funneled more contributions to Obama than any politician. Now they're making taxpayers clean up their mess.

"Tell Barack Obama -- no cash bailout without reform of Fannie and Freddie."

Anyone else seen this ad?

- jpt

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (193) | TrackBack (0)

An Unoriginal Question About William Ayers

October 06, 2008 7:06 PM

Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman in the New York Times said the following: "If John McCain had a long association with a guy who'd bombed abortion clinics, I don't think people would say, 'That's ancient history.' "

Another jump ball for discussion purposes:

What if McCain had launched his political career in the living room of a former abortion clinic bomber who is now a respected professor at, say, a Christian college, who is unrepentant in his previous actions, but never charged with a crime, and was now pursuing a different avenue for his views...

And what if he'd given McCain a $200 campaign contribution eight years ago, and they'd served on a board together, and were "friendly" though they hadn't spoken in a while, and McCain had condemned his previous actions and didn't know him back then…

And what if right now McCain were ahead with a Republican wind blowing, and Obama were behind.

And what if Obama started attacking McCain about this guy.

How would it look to you? How would the media react? And would it be a fair hit?

Discuss.

Politely, please.

- jpt

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (451) | TrackBack (0)

McCain 1998: "Is This Guy Laden Really the Bad Guy That's Depicted?"

October 06, 2008 6:44 PM

The liberal blogosphere is atwitter with a 1998 Mother Jones Magazine interview -- first seemingly unearthed by Talking Points Memo -- with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that includes the following curious exchange about Osama bin Laden.

MJ: You not only have had combat experience in Vietnam, but you were also a prisoner of war. When you look at terrorism right now, with people like Osama bin Laden, do you have any reservations about watching strikes like that?

John McCain: You could say, Look, is this guy, Laden, really the bad guy that's depicted? Most of us have never heard of him before. And where there is a parallel with Vietnam is: What's plan B? What do we do next? We sent our troops into Vietnam to protect the bases. Lyndon Johnson said, Only to protect the bases. Next thing you know.... Well, we've declared to the terrorists that we're going to strike them wherever they live. That's fine. But what's next? That's where there might be some comparison.

The interview took place in September 1998, one month after the August 7, 1998, truck bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

I would expect close Obama allies and perhaps even the Obama campaign to very soon start citing this interview, depicting McCain as not understanding and downplaying the terrorist threat back in 1998.

Fairly or unfairly.

The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment or an explanation as to what precisely McCain was trying to say in that interview 10 years ago.

-- jpt

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (62) | TrackBack (0)

'Who Is the Real Barack Obama?' Someone Has an Answer

October 06, 2008 6:16 PM

At the Atlantic, Marc Ambinder says that when McCain asks the above question, someone in the audience yells "terrorist!"

In Estero, Florida, today, Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott, speaking before Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at a rally, said the world had three types of people: "the ones who make things happen, the ones who watch what happens and the ones who wonder what happened. Let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened."

The use of Obama's middle name struck some critics as an attempt to paint him as "other," as "foreign," though the sheriff says he was just using the man's full name, no big deal.

(Why didn't he use Palin's middle name? He didn't know it. FYI, it's Louise.)

Palin campaign spokesperson Tracey Schmitt said in response, “We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character, and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November.”

Jump ball for discussion purposes: Are these random events it's unfair to blame on the McCain-Palin campaign, or does the new tone of the McCain-Palin campaign encourage these types of statements?

Discuss.

Politely, please.

- jpt

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (210) | TrackBack (0)

In Land of Enchantment, McCain Asks 'Who is the Real Barack Obama?'

October 06, 2008 5:33 PM

In Albuquerque, NM, this afternoon, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, delivered his harshest attacks yet against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., painting his Democratic rival as a mysterious, risky unknown.

"Who is the real Barack Obama?" McCain asked.

“Even at this late hour in the campaign there are things we don’t know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign,” McCain said. “We have all heard what he has said, but it is less clear what he has done or what he will do."

Speaking to a relatively small crowd of maybe 750 people, McCain said, "My opponent's touchiness every time he is questioned about his record should make us only more concerned. For a guy who's already authored two memoirs, he's not exactly an open book….What has this man ever actually accomplished in government?"

“Nothing!” the crowd shouted.

"What does he plan for America?" McCain asked. "In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But ask such questions and all you get in response is another angry barrage of insults."

"Who is the real Senator Obama?" McCain asked. "Is he the candidate who promises to cut middle class taxes, or the politician who voted to raise middle class taxes? Is he the candidate who talks about regulation or the politician who took money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and turned a blind eye as they ran our economy into a ditch? Which one is it? Is he the candidate who promises change, or is he the politician who has bought into everything that is wrong with Washington? And he’s bought into it big time."

Unlike the allegedly mysterious Mr. Obama, McCain said, "I didn't just show up out of nowhere, after all -- America knows me. You know my strengths and my faults. You know my story and my convictions. And though familiarity in politics can be both helpful to a candidate, or not so helpful, it does at least fill out the picture and answer the essential questions. You need to know who you're putting in the White House -- where the candidate came from and what he or she believes. And you need to know now, before it is time to choose."

The attack comes just two days after McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, started saying that Obama doesn't see America the same way most Americans do, and is "palling around with terrorists."

A new McCain-Palin TV ad asks the "Who is Barack Obama?" question and also calls Obama "dishonorable."

In April, McCain told Fox News, "Americans want a respectful campaign. Now, people say negative ads move numbers. They may. But do we have to go to the lowest common denominator? I don't think so."

In May, Cindy McCain said that "none of this negative stuff though you won't see come out of our side...My husband is absolutely opposed to any negative campaigning at all....We'd rather not win than have to do that. That's not worth winning for."

-- Jake Tapper and Bret Hovell

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (129) | TrackBack (0)

A Different Member of the Keating 5 Introduces the Boss at Obama Rally

October 06, 2008 3:10 PM

"You don't get introduced by John Glenn every day," Bruce Springsteen said yesterday at an Obama get-out-the-vote rally at Ohio State University, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch.

Former Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, was -- along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. -- one of the Keating Five, the handful of senators who met with federal regulators to urge them to ease up on the savings and loan owned by contributor Charles Keating.

Hours after Glenn introduced the Boss at the Obama rally, the Obama campaign launched a campaign attacking McCain for his Keating Five activities. They made no mention of Mr. Glenn.

- jpt

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (165) | TrackBack (0)

An Adorable Maverick

October 06, 2008 2:40 PM

Wiggles Dog Wigs is selling a wig for pets to dress up as Gov. Sarah Palin.

Ruth Regina tells me they are also working on wigs for dogs to dress up as Sens. McCain and Obama.

- jpt

October 6, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (35) | TrackBack (0)

Obama on Attacking Keating Attacks on McCain: ‘We Don't Throw the First Punch, But We'll Throw the Last’

October 06, 2008 2:10 PM

In Asheville, NC, this afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made a statement about today's bleak economic news, hammered Sen. John McCain's campaign tactics, and refused to answer questions about McCain's role in the Keating 5 scandal -- which his campaign is discussing quite a bit -- before getting into his car and speeding off to get some barbecue at 12 Bones Smokehouse.

"Before we go get some barbecue I want to make a statement on the economy,” Obama said.

"Obviously, we woke up this morning and saw that the markets are still in turmoil.  Not only are we seeing the stock market go down, but there is still great danger of the credit markets locking up and we have seen the contagion is spreading to all parts of the globe.  Europe is having some of the problems that we are having here in the states.  Asia is being affected
 
"It is a reminder that the rescue package that was passed last week is not the end of our efforts to deal with the economy. It is just the beginning.
   
"I think it is very important for Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Bernanke to move swiftly and try to restore confidence as quickly as possible to effectuate the plans, based on the authority given to them by Congress. I think it is still critical for us to move forward on an economic stimulus package that can provide people some relief from high gas prices.  Food prices.  Help states and local governments maintain their payrolls.  I think we have to extend unemployment insurance after the statistics showing that 159,000 additional jobs were lost just last month.
   
"And we are going to have to then move on an aggressive plan to deal with some of the underlying structural problems in the economy, including the continuing decline in the housing market.
   
"Now, Sen. McCain and I have a debate tomorrow.  And obviously, the American people are going to be anxious to hear from one of the two people who is going to be the next president and responsible for dealing with this economic mess and what their plans are. I was a little surprised over the last couple of days to hear Sen. McCain say -- or Sen. McCain's campaign say -- that we want to turn the page on discussions about the economy and campaign, a member of Sen. McCain's campaign saying today that if we talk about the economic crisis, we lose.
 
"I have got news for the McCain campaign: the American people are losing right now.  They are losing their jobs. They are losing their health care.  They are losing their homes and their savings.  I cannot imagine anything more important to talk about than the economic crisis, and the notion that we would want to brush that aside and engage in the usual political shenanigans and smear tactics that have come to characterize too many campaigns, I think, is not what the American people are looking for.  So, I am going to keep on talking about the economy.  I am going to keep on talking about what we need to do to strengthen the middle class and get our credit markets settled down.  I have confidence we are going to solve this problem, but we are not going to solve it with business as usual.  And we need fundamental change, and that is why I am running as president.  Alright. "

Obama was twice asked by the press pool, “Why did you bring up the Keating Five?” but Obama ignored the questions and got in his car. 

**

He wasn't so reticent on the "Tom Joyner Morning Show," when the host asked about the McCain-Palin campaign's attack on him for "palling around with terrorists," namely former Weather Underground member William Ayers, currently an education professor in Chicago.

"First of all, just the facts," Obama told Joyner. "Mr. Ayers is somebody who lives in Chicago, he is a professor at the University of Chicago — University of Illinois, teaches education, and he engaged in these despicable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old.  I served on a board with him, and so now, they are trying to use this as guilt by association.  And as you've said, they explicitly stated what they want to do is to change the topic, because they don't want to talk about the economy and the failed policies of the last eight years.  So, I think the American people deserve better.  I think they deserve a last four weeks that talks about the economic crisis, about the 159 jobs that were lost –- 159,000 jobs that were lost just last week — last month. 

"But if John McCain wants to have a character debate, then I am happy to have that debate, because Mr. McCain's record, despite him calling himself a maverick, actually shows that he is continually somebody who relies on lobbyists for big oil, big corporations, and that he makes decisions oftentimes based on what these lobbyists tell him to do.  And that, I think, is going to be a lot more relevant to the American people than what somebody -- who is tangentially related to me -- did when I was 8 years old."

Joyner noted that the Obama campaign launched a Web site, keatingeconomics.com, going after McCain for his role in the S&L crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s, and his role in the Keating Five scandal. "Of course, Charles Keating was a savings and loan guy out of Arizona," Joyner said. "Doesn't this put you in the position of going negative, taking away your message of running a different kind of campaign?"

Said Obama: "One of the things we’ve done during this campaign: we don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last.  Because if the American people don't get the information that is relevant about these candidates and, instead, in the last four weeks, all they are hearing about are smears and Swift Boat tactics, that can have an impact on the election.  We have seen it before, and this election is too important to be sitting on the sidelines.  If Sen. McCain wants to focus on the issues, then that is what we focus on.  But if Sen. McCain wants to have a character debate, that is one that we're willing to have."

**

At 12 Bones Smokehouse, he ordered takeout for his campaign staff: Brisket, 2 racks of ribs, pulled pork, a barbecue platter, a veggie platter, six sweet teas, corn pudding, macaroni and cheese, and a double order of collards.

- jpt

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