Whatever desire that Democrats may have to bring Senate candidate Jane Norton down to earth should not permit subsidizing the rants of Colorado's greatest embarrassment since John Chivington. Noting very, very briefly what the Denver Post reports:
Former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton will announce her candidacy for the U.S. Senate today, much to the chagrin of retired U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo.
Tancredo said he would not have had a problem if Norton earlier this year had called fellow Republicans statewide to say she wanted to run for the office and outlined her reasons.
Instead, he charged that Norton in recent weeks got talked into running by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Norton family friend and political ally.
"Does John McCain have a right to do that? Sure. Do I have a right to (complain) about it? You bet," Tancredo said in an interview Monday night. "Jane Norton is a nice lady who I like. End of story. But I fear she is not ready for prime time."
Yeah, we'll remember that next time you run for President on the "Send 'Em Back" ticket. And why do we have the feeling that Tancredo wouldn't be nearly so angry if McCain had suggested that he should run for Senate?
At least Post reporter Lynn Bartels had the sense to edit Tancredo for the print version, in the first version of this story he asks, "Do I have a right to bitch about it?"
If the messenger makes your skin crawl, it's really hard to listen to what they say. Almost makes us wonder if he's learned his lesson from the Sonia Sotomayor burn and is now using his ignominy to inversely boost the team...
It should now be clear to everyone across the political spectrum that Sarah Palin was a disastrous pick for the VP slot. Most of us saw that before the election, which is why Palin went quickly from having superstar status to being a serious drag on the McCain ticket. But the evidence coming out in the days after the election of her profligacy, lack of basic knowledge about things like NAFTA and Africa that a C-student in American Government would know, and reports of her serious attitude problems, it should be utterly clear to even hyper-Republican partisans that Palin was the worst possible choice.
As The Denver Post reports, John McCain's campaign is cutting back in Colorado...just like every once-competitive tight Republican race:
Despite assertions that it was not cutting back on resources in the state, John McCain's presidential campaign has drastically slashed television advertising at Colorado's big three stations.
At the same time, national Republicans have canceled $600,000 worth of ads supporting incumbent GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's re-election bid. And the campaign arm of Senate Democrats pulled out of the Mark Udall-Bob Schaffer race, where recent polls show Udall, a Democrat, with a wide lead. Colorado's days as a battleground state for the Nov. 4 election may be waning.[Pols emphasis]
McCain, who trails Barack Obama by an average of 5 percentage points in Colorado polls, this week bought a total of $305,550 worth of ads at KUSA-Channel 9, KCNC-Channel 4 and KMGH-Channel 7, according to records. That is a 46 percent decrease from the week before and a 56 percent slide from two weeks ago...
..."What this means is that the McCain campaign has sparse resources and is beginning to write places off," said Jennifer Duffy, managing editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "Colorado polling is consistently looking bad for McCain. So it doesn't surprise me that they are putting their resources elsewhere."
You have to feel sorry for the McCain spokespeople at this point, because they're left sounding a little like the old Iraqi Public Information Minister:
Members of both the local and national McCain campaign have repeatedly denied they would - or did - shift or cut back on resources, including ads, in Colorado. When asked about the drop at the three stations Wednesday, Tom Kise, spokesman for the campaign, refused to answer the question and instead discussed the ads themselves.[Pols emphasis]
"We are not pulling ads and will be on the air in Colorado through Election Day. While we won't be discussing specifics of any buy, we reserve the right, like all campaigns do, including the Obama camp, to make strategic moves on a daily basis with our paid media efforts," Kise said.
Not only are we not cutting back our ads, we're actually winning in Colorado. In fact, we've already won. You just haven't been told yet.
After a turbulent week that included new disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin and signs that Senator John McCain was struggling to strike the right tone for his campaign, Republican leaders said Saturday they were worried that Mr. McCain was heading for defeat unless he brought stability to his presidential candidacy and settled on a clear message to counter Senator Barack Obama.
Again and again, party leaders said in interviews that while they still believed that Mr. McCain could win over voters in the next 30 days, they were concerned that he and his advisers seemed to be adrift in dealing with an extraordinarily challenging political battleground and a crisis on Wall Street.
The expressions of concern came after a particularly difficult week for Mr. McCain. On Friday night, new questions arose about his choice of Ms. Palin as his running mate after an investigation by the Alaska Legislature concluded that Ms. Palin had abused her power in trying to orchestrate the firing of her former brother-in-law, a state trooper.
"I think you're seeing a turning point," said Saul Anuzis, the Republican chairman in Michigan, where Mr. McCain has decided to stop campaigning. "You're starting to feel real frustration because we are running out of time. Our message, the campaign's message, isn't connecting."...
...The difficulties of the McCain campaign have led some Republican leaders to express concern that he could end up dragging other Republicans down to defeat. "If Obama is able to run up big numbers around the country, the potential for hurting down-ballot Republicans is very big," Mr. Anuzis, the Michigan party chairman, said.
One sign of that has emerged in Nebraska, where Representative Lee Terry ran a newspaper advertisement featuring words of support for him from a woman identified as an "Obama-Terry voter."
Colorado's own Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams takes his shots at the McCain camp as well. You know, because he's run such a brilliant campaign for Bob Schaffer and all:
But no subject has more divided Republicans than the one that has been a matter of disagreement in the McCain camp: how directly to invoke Mr. Obama's connection to his controversial former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground who has had a passing association with Mr. Obama over the years.
In Colorado, a traditionally Republican state that Mr. McCain is struggling to keep in his column, the party chairman, Dick Wadhams, urged Mr. McCain to hit the issue hard, arguing that it was fair game and could be highly effective in raising questions about Mr. Obama in the final weeks of the campaign. He said he was surprised Mr. McCain had failed to do so in last week's debate.
"I think those are legitimate insights into who Senator Obama is," Mr. Wadhams said. "I do not think it is irrelevant to this election."
But Fergus Cullen, the Republican chairman in New Hampshire, said Saturday that he thought it would be a mistake for Mr. McCain to go down that road, warning that it would turn off moderate voters in his state who have a history of supporting Mr. McCain.
Barack Obama is outspending John McCain at nearly a three-to-one clip on television time in the final weeks of the presidential election, according to ad buy information obtained by The Fix, a financial edge that is almost certainly contributing to the momentum for the Illinois senator in key battleground states.
From Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, Obama spent more than $20 million on television ads in 17 states including more than $3 million in Pennsylvania and more than $2 million each in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania. McCain in that same time frame spent just $7.2 million in 15 states. Even when the Republican National Committee's independent expenditure spending in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin is factored in (a total of $5.3 million), Obama still outspent the combined GOP forces by roughly $8 million in the last week alone.
Biden said McCain voted "the exact same way" as Obama to raise taxes on people making $42,000/year.
That's a lie. McCain didn't vote on either bill:
Barack Obama Voted Twice In Favor Of The Democrats' FY 2009 Budget Resolution That Would Raise Taxes On Those Making Just $42,000 A Year. (S. Con. Res. 70, CQ Vote #85: Adopted 51-44: R 2-43; D 47-1; I 2-0, 3/14/08, Obama Voted Yea; S. Con. Res. 70, CQ Vote #142: Adopted 48- 45: R 2- 44; D 44- 1; I 2-0, 6/4/08, Obama Voted Yea)
For future generations following this election, I thought I would post some pictures to illustrate one of the main contentious issues of this campaign: John McCain - maverick or not?
"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved," John McCain said.
Well, surprise, surprise: I guess that wasn't true.
Still, hoping to staunch the bleeding in the polls, Sen. "Hasn't been to work in DC since April" McCain is bringing his brand of 'leadership' to Colorado this Thursday and Friday, the Denver Post is reporting.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain will make a two-day swing through Colorado on Thursday and Friday, his campaign announced today.
On Thursday in Denver, McCain will hold a "women's town hall meeting" at the Sheraton Grand Hotel downtown. Doors for the 3:45 p.m. event open at 2:30.
...On Friday, the campaign will move south to Pueblo for a town hall meeting at the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus.
The program at Massari Arena is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., with doors opening at 9 a.m.
The press and the Obama campaign have jumped all over Sen. John McCain for his recent comments about the "fundamentals of our economy" being "strong."
[T]he Obama campaign quickly jumped on John McCain's statement yesterday that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." McCain made the comment on the same day that two major Wall Street institutions effectively collapsed, and the Obama campaign portrayed McCain's response as evidence that the Republican nominee is "out of touch with what's going in the lives of ordinary Americans."
Perhaps McCain is just confused because, according to today's Washington Post, the fundamentals of the McCain family economy are stronger than ever. In other words, his wife Cindy's massive beer distributorship, which has made them millions, is apparently bringing in even more money thanks to Americans reliance on beer to ease the pain of the economic downturn.
More than 16 million barrels of domestic beer were sold in the United States in July, and annual sales through that month are up 1.4 percent, the largest increase since 1990, when the economy was headed toward a recession, according to the Beer Institute. (Yes, such a thing exists. It's a trade group.)
The uptick is significant for a mature industry with roughly $50 billion in annual sales, particularly as consumers reduce spending on other discretionary purchases, such as venti lattes and designer jeans. Trade groups for the liquor and wine industries report consumption of those beverages has also increased. But beer is America's most popular alcoholic beverage, claiming more than half the market, and the go-to drink during these times of economic distress.
We shouldn't hold McCain's confusion about the economy against him. He isn't feeling the same economic strain because his family's business is still raking in the dough. Either that, or he's drunk...
Somebody better put another one of John McCain's policy advisors back on the shelf. As The Associated Press reports:
Move over, Al Gore. You may lay claim to the Internet, but John McCain helped create the BlackBerry.
At least that's the contention of a top McCain policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Waving his BlackBerry personal digital assistant and citing McCain's work as a senator, he told reporters today, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create."[Pols emphasis]
McCain has acknowledged that he doesn't know how to use a computer and can't send e-mail, one of the BlackBerry's prime functions.
Holtz-Eakin's argument is similar to one advanced by Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000. Gore once boasted about "taking the initiative to create the Internet" through technological and educational policies. He later was mocked for claiming to have invented the Internet, although he never made such a claim.
Wow. McCain created the Blackberry? This could be one of those seminal campaign moments where the candidate goes from respected to mocked, bringing up - again - stories about how McCain admits to not even knowing how to use a computer.
McCain is pretty old, so maybe the advisor meant that he invented the actual blackberry - you know, the fruit.
There have been rumors on the internets about "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah" replacing McCain at the top of the ticket.
I wrote my prior column, suggesting John McCain replace Sarah Palin, before Palin's speech last night.
After watching her speech and sleeping on it, I now think that perhaps Palin should replace McCain.
She would actually make a more attractive candidate if the national Republican Party ever returned to the small-government ideals that she espouses
It's speculation of course, but with his age, failed judgement, problems with the truth, should Sarah Palin replace George.. I mean John McCain at the top of the ticket?
According to Colorado Independent, a new ad running in Colorado is bashing Barack Obama for being "disrespectful" toward Sarah Palin:
That 9/11 Truce didn't last long.
The McCain campaign began running a TV ad Thursday in Colorado that raises the question: Is John McCain engaged in a high-stakes game of limbo? As his campaign since the Republican National Convention piles outright lies upon scurrilous outrage upon gross distortion, it remains to be seen just how low he can go.
"Lashes Out," the latest 30-second ad from McCain, provides the answer. The ad menacingly accuses the Obama-Biden campaign of being "disrespectful" toward Sarah Palin. You can hear the announcer's lip curl as she ticks off a litany meant to portray Barack Obama and Joe Biden as patronizing sexists.
Our favorite citation attacks Obama for calling Palin a liar, but the citation just shows this: "...lying..."
To call a spade a bloody shovel means more than speaking plainly; rather, it means saying something that is true but unpalatable -- or impolitic.
During an otherwise stellar appearance on David Letterman's show last night, Barack Obama missed an opportunity to deliver a kidney punch to John McCain. In my view, this missed opportunity vividly exemplifies a weakness in the election style Democrats have used over the past three decades.
(I'm not saying Obama's campaign exemplifies this style; to the contrary, despite a few missteps -- and who among us could do better? I submit that, given the fact that Barack Obama has steamrolled over every obstacle thus far, this man just might know better than anyone how to correct the Democratic Party's mistakes of the past and finally, FINALLY beat these bastards in this rigged game. But I'm making a point here, so... bear with me.)
Letterman asked, and I'm paraphrasing,
"If you'd been able to pick your Vice-Presidential running mate after McCain picked Palin, would you have chosen differently?"
Obama answered -- and again, I'm paraphrasing:
"I chose the person I want in the room with me, giving me wise advice and different points of view..."
Intelligent, cogent and sincere.
But I think he should have phrased it thusly:
"Maybe this is another difference between Senator McCain and me:
I didn't pick my running mate because I thought he would help me WIN; I picked him because I thought he would help me GOVERN."
Stark, simple and true. Did John McCain pick Sarah Palin because he thought she was the best of all possible candidates for the role of Vice-President in a McCain Administration?
The very suggestion is a joke. Nobody could make that suggestion wit a straight face unless he worked for McCain or Fox News. McCain picked Palin to help him win the election.
Just one more in an endless series of proofs that John McCain's campaign slogan of "Country First" is an empty, shallow and insulting lie.
OpenLeft just broke this story about a whistleblower who worked with Cindy McCain at her charity. He is coming forward with information about John McCain using his political influence to keep her out of trouble following her prescription drug theft scandal.
Today, Tom Gosinski, her former employee and a close friend of the McCain's, came out on the record about the entire sordid episode. And it appears that McCain used his Senate staff and resources to cover up Cindy's drug use, and potentially to prevent the Drug Enforcement Agency from investigating his wife's theft of illegal prescription drugs. John McCain certainly used his political connections to begin a campaign of intimidation against Gosinski, because at the time - this was after the Keating 5 scandal - another major scandal would have derailed his career. Gosinski stayed quiet out of fear until today; a recent fight with cancer has strengthened his resolve.
It will be interesting to see if the mainstream media runs with this. More -- including a video interview with the whistleblower -- available at OpenLeft.
Is it just us, or does Sarah Palin for John McCain's VP remind you a little of Janet Rowland for Bob Beauprez's Lieutenant Governor in 2006?
If you recall, not long after Beauprez announced Rowland as his running mate, we learned that she had recently compared homosexuality to bestiality. Nobody knew anything about Rowland - including, apparently, the Beauprez campaign - and her selection just highlighted further Beauprez's disastrous statewide campaign.
Now, Palin is no Rowland, but the former has her own far-right ideas that McCain now has to deal with. As Colorado Independent reports, Palin supported the idea of teaching Creationism in schools when she was asked about it during her campaign for governor in Alaska:
Then in a classic McCain-style back-flip, a few days later Palin tried to take it back...
...She added that, if elected, she would not push the state Board of Education to add such creation-based alternatives to the state's required curriculum.
This is the person McCain thinks should be one heartbeat away from the Oval Office? As a former McCain fan, I'm actually quite sad about this, but his run for President has turned McCain from a maverick to just a mimic for the far right.
Creationism really isn't an idea you flip-flop about. Either you believe it should be taught in schools, or you don't. If you even entertain the idea that Creationism is worthy of being taught in schools, you've already crossed that line far enough - there's no going back from there.
We're as surprised as many of you to hear that Tina Fey Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is John McCain's choice for a running mate. Palin is so little-known that the initial AP story about her selection included lines like this:
Congressional Quarterly said her past occupations included being a commercial fishing company owner, outdoor recreational equipment company owner and sports reporter.
Nobody even knows anything about her, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - but she's really, really unknown. And what is known about her is that she is involved in a scandal involving a fired state trooper who was in a child-custody battle with her sister.
But the strangest part of the Palin choice in our view is that she doesn't really stand up as a person who the public could see as PRESIDENT should anything happen to the 72-year-old McCain. She's only been a governor for 2 years, and in a state that's basically Canada. It makes it difficult for McCain to rip Obama for a lack of experience when his running mate is the most inexperienced of the entire bunch.
This big (can't remember how many?) can of worms has been opened and there's no closing it. McCain's campaign panicked today and tried to throw everything, including the kitchen sink, back at Barack Obama.
What's at issue here is the McCain's inherited wealth and how that will influence his policies as President. McCain has already flipped flopped on tax cuts for the wealthy, proposed an economic tax plan giving billions to corporations, and what's worse is McCain has previously brushed aside the concerns of the economy while his economic advisor called Americans a bunch of whiners.
As duly noted, the topic of a candidates wealth was made into a very large issue in 2004 against John and Teresa Kerry. John was teased for windsurfing while Teresa was battered for months to disclose her financial records, which she finally did.
