RNC
Obama Wins?!?!?! Ok, just Dixville Notch
Barack Obama wins the Election?
Well, only in the New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch, but there is some significance here, in that a Democrat hasn’t won this early vote in 40 years.
With 15 votes for Obama and six for McCain reported by broadcasters, the opening of the Dixville Notch polling station Tuesday just after midnight marked the opening of US elections that could put produce the first-ever African-American president.
Does this mean anything? Not necessarily. However, it does show that even Republican-leaning communities have been able to embrace Barack Obama’s candidacy and buck the trend.
Should this early victory make one give up hope? Of course not. However, John McCain will have some tough hurdles ahead over the next 18 hours. But with that being said, by the end of tonight, this will all be over.
Was the ‘Great Schlep’ a great kappore?
Yiddish Translation: Kappore = Catastrophe.
In September the Jewish Council of Education & Research launched an innovative and attractive campaign to motivate young Jews around the country to make their way down to Florida to convince their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama.
With an edgy (yet compelling) video-plea from Sarah Silverman, this campaign received a great deal of fanfare and had many believing that this effort would lead to hundreds of young Jews schlepping down to Florida.
Obama’s $1,000 Day Spa Campaign Expense?
There has been a lot of media coverage over the news that the Republican National Committee has shelled out over $150,000 for a new wardrobe and hair care for VP nominee, Sarah Palin.
Reported disbursements include:
- Saks 5th Avenue: $49,425.74
- Neiman Marcus: $75,062.63
- Hair care for the month of September: $4,716.49
While this probably isn’t what “Joe the Plumber,” “Rose the Teacher,” or “Jerry the Evangelical” spend when they go to the mall, are any of the candidates really in a position where they can criticize these actions?
For a while today, I thought that this was going to be a golden opportunity for Barack Obama to come out swinging, painting both Palin and McCain as elitists who use their supporters money to fund their wardrobe and makeup. With this argument, it would have been extremely easy for Barack Obama to make a correlation between the RNC’s ethics and those executives on Wall Street.
But then I did some digging into Barack Obama’s campaign finance report, and to my surprise what do I find:
May 6th, 2008 - Eneida’s Salon, $1,000, East Berlin, CT - Staging, Sound, Lighting
What’s unique about this is how the Obama campaign expensed this event. After doing a bit of research, I was able to pull up some information about Eneida’s Salon, which now leaves me with some questions:
Ads the McCain Campaign should be running right now.
I’ve heard many experts insist that negative campaigning is an essential part of today’s political process, but it seems to me that campaigns have started to take those experts a bit too seriously and ignore what it is that people are actually looking for in a President in 2008.
Yes, people are concerned with Obama’s associations with William Ayers, and yes, his close ties to organizations like ACORN are even more sketchy. However, those attack ads should be left to the 527’s and the national parties.
Focusing particularly on the McCain campaign, he needs to show people that he isn’t going to be just another George W. Bush. However, if he is going to achieve that image, he’s going to have to throw away the Karl Rove-like campaigning and let the American people see him for who he really is. That being a war hero, a leader and a reformer.
Instead of showing videos that continually highlight Obama’s inexperience, I think that McCain needs to go back to some of their better videos that show who John McCain really is, something done well in videos like this:
This video shows a real reformer, someone who is actually willing to go against the status quo and challenge the establishment. Furthermore, it shows a candidate who isn’t hyper-partisan and doesn’t need to go negative to illustrate a point. If McCain would run videos like this, I’m confident that he would see his poll numbers improve.
If you look at the polls, in conjunction with the debates, Senator McCain was hurt significantly upon each conclusion. Why is that? The reason is because instead of being calm and presidential, he spent the majority of his time sounding angry, sarcastic, and/or defensive. While he made some great points in these debates, the majority of the people watching probably didn’t understand everything that he or Obama were talking anyway, but instead were watching the debates to get a better sense of each candidates character.
The fact that McCain is down by so many points should be a sign to his advisers that their current strategy isn’t working. They need a new approach, something that gives the American people, particularly undecided voters, confidence in John McCain. The campaign needs to bring back the John McCain we saw early in the primaries, the candidate who had no problem carrying his own bags and flying commercial. That’s a candidate that the American people can relate to, not some over-anxious, rich, old, white man who smirks every time his opponent speaks.
I’ve told many people that I think that this campaign is over for John McCain, but I truly believe that if they make some changes quickly, I could (happily) be proven wrong.
5 reasons why some might believe the rumor that Joe Biden is stepping down
If you’re a news junkie like me, odds are you’ve seen a couple dozen stories discussing a rumor that Joe Biden is planning on stepping out of the race in a few days, citing “health reasons”.
The rumor as mentioned on AssociatedContent.com:
“On or about October 5, 2008, Joe Biden will announce his resignation from the race as Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate. He will cite health reasons and quietly withdraw. Hillary Clinton is poised to take his place as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. Or so this latest rumor goes.”
Obviously this isn’t the first time that rumors have been started about candidates that have turned out to be nothing, and I guarantee that this won’t be the last.
However, it’s not hard for someone to make an argument that would make this rumor seem like it could be a possibility.
While I am not completely confident in the rumor, here are five things that could lead people to believe that Joe Biden will be leaving the race:
1. - Joe Biden hasn’t been a staunch supporter of the activities of the campaign his name on. Here is Joe Biden commenting on an anti-McCain commercial recently run by his campaign (not a 527): ”
Asked about the negative tone of the campaign, and this ad in particular, during an interview broadcast Monday by the “CBS Evening News,” Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, said he disapproved of it. “I thought that was terrible, by the way,” Biden said.
2. - There is no doubt whatsoever that Joe Biden is a “family first” kind of guy. Even after his kids grew up, he still came back to Delaware every night to spend time with his family and always did what he could to keep his family close. Now that he is running for Vice President, his family has been a prime target for the RNC, particularly his lobbyist son Hunter who according to the RNC:
was until recently a registered Washington lobbyist whose clients received earmarks from Obama, and Federico Pena, Obama’s campaign co-chairman who has close ties to big electricity.
Random commentary: Honestly, I’ve always thought that this was a pointless argument by the RNC, because I’m quite confident that I can connect Hunter Biden to some of the lobbyists working for McCain. This whole lobbyist argument is getting old anyway, so focus on the issues!
3. - Even Joe Biden himself has said that he thinks Hillary Clinton might have been a better choice than him for the VP:
“Make no mistake about this,” said Biden. “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified as I am … She’s qualified to be president of the United States of America and easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America. And quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.”
While some might argue that this was just Joe Biden being humble, the tone of his voice really had me thinking that he believed what he was saying.
4. - Joe Biden doesn’t agree with Barack Obama on a variety of core issues, and it’s starting to show:
Asked by NBC’s Meredith Vieira whether the Fed should bail out insurance giant AIG, the senator said no: “I don’t think they should be bailed out by the federal government.” Unfortunately, the remark had more in common with McCain’s initial position on the bailout (instinctive opposition) than Obama’s carefully cultivated claim that he would not “second-guess” the government. When the bailout went through, both Biden and McCain bowed to reality. But the shift left Obama in a tricky position-as Matt Lauer pointed out this morning on “Today.” Noting that Obama had been hitting McCain for flip-flopping on the AIG bailout, Lauer asked the Illinois senator how he could criticize his Republican rival when his own running mate had made the same mistake. His answer? “I think Joe should have waited, as well.” Awkward.
Random commentary: Why does the media consider any deviation from talking-points as a gaffe? Is honesty or an individual point of view no longer allowed in the political arena?
5. - One could argue that even the Obama campaign seems to be reluctant to put Biden’s name on key campaign materials:
In a controversial move sure to upset millions of people, Barack Obama’s campaign has decided to forgo the traditional time-wasting distribution of chum (yard signs, bumper stickers, etc.) to try and win the election.
Random commentary: As a former campaign staffer, I understand the argument for forgoing the campaign signs. They take up a lot of time, and if both sides are good at what they’re doing, those signs wont be in people’s yards anyway come election day ;)
In conclusion, yes, I can see how over the past few weeks some might see Joe Biden’s departure as an inevitable event. However, Barack Obama is still beating John McCain in many polls, and it appears that Obama still may be gaining some momentum. While I don’t think that Biden is essential for Obama’s victory, I don’t necessarily see him doing much damage to the campaign either.
While there are a variety of things that make this rumor seem more legitimate, at present I have a hard time believing it. But as this post reflects, I can’t rule anything out.
Blogs covering the “Biden Rumor:”
- Progressive Californian
- The Right Perspective
- Exposing Liberal Lies
- Frankly, My Dear
- Flopping Aces
- Texas to Oregon
- Sherryness
- Stix Blog
Is your blog covering this story? If so, mention it in the comments and include a direct link to your post!
