plum19-mart

According to yahoo, The supreme court has turned down a case against Barack Obama about being ineligible to be president because of his birth. " The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election." This same guy was also trying to say that McCain and the Socialist candidate, Rodger Calero, were also not bore in the states. mcCain was born in Panama, but on a US base.

There is one other case out there by Philip Burg of PA. mr. Burg is trying to say Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and Hawaii officials have confirmed. Berg also says that Obama could be a citizen of Indonesia, where Barack live for a few years as a boy. Berg's case has been dismissed in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Washington.

But Hawaii Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino and the state's registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, say they checked health department records and have determined there's no doubt Obama was born in Hawaii. They have examined the original document and said it does have a raised seal and the usual evidence of a genuine document. It was also shown on CNN on November 1st.

There have also been many reproductions of an announcement of Obama's birth, including his parents' address in Honolulu, that was published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961.

Found this on ABC news and checked it out and it seems to be real. Thought I'd give you republicans something to get mad at me for posting about people that agree with you on McCain. Maybe its a reason to vote mcCain, cause if obama wins, the country might get better and Al-Qaeda might feel they have to attack us again because we would be a better nation again. Other democrats on here might get a good laugh like I did. Here ya go.

Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market’s downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America’s economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.

And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.

“Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.

Found this article and thought it made a great point. keep an open mind.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – Two weeks before an election that could install the first black U.S. president, scattered ugly incidents have reflected a deep residue of racism among some segments of white America.

A cardboard likeness of Barack Obama was found strung from fishing wire at a university, the Democratic presidential nominee's face was depicted on mock food stamps, the body of a black bear was left at another university with Obama posters attached to it.

Though the incidents are sporadic and apparently isolated, they stirred up memories of the violent racial past of a country where segregation and lynchings only ended within the last 50 years.

And some feared that Obama could be a target for people who reject him on racial grounds alone. The Illinois senator leads Republican rival John McCain in polls ahead of the November 4 election and has a big following in many sections of Americans, from liberals to conservatives, black and white, poor and wealthy.

"Many whites feel they are losing their country right before their eyes," said Mark Potok, who directs the Southern Poverty Law Center that monitors hate groups. "What we are seeing at this moment is the beginning of a real backlash."

Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the incidents were disappointing but he said there were fewer than some had predicted.

"We've always acknowledged that race is not something that's been eradicated from our politics," said Axelrod. "But we've never felt that it would be an insuperable barrier and I don't think that it will be."

The latest incident occurred on Monday when the body of bear cub was found on the campus of Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Obama campaign signs were placed around the dead animal's head. School officials said it was a prank.

Earlier a cardboard likeness of Obama was strung up with fishing wire from a tree at a university in Oregon and an Ohio man hung a figure bearing an Obama sign from a tree in his yard. The man told local media he didn't want to see an African-American running the country.

ANGRY INDIVIDUALS

Potok said the displays of racism did not appear orchestrated as part of a campaign of racial intimidation, but were rather the acts of angry individuals. Their voices are often heard in radio call-back shows or letters to editors.

Many Americans "see the rise of minority rights, gay rights, women's rights as a threat to the world they grew up in and that their parents grew up in. They see huge demographic changes," he said.

"They see jobs disappearing to other countries, and now they see a man who is African American and who will very likely become president of the United States. For some of those people that symbolizes the end of the world as they know it."

He estimated there were as many as 800 white supremacy or nationalist groups in the United States, with at least 100,000 as "an inner core" of membership and many more on the fringes.

One such group, the League of American Patriots, last month distributed literature about why a "black ruler" would destroy the country.

Michigan State University professor Ronald Hall, writing in his new book "Racism in the 21st Century," said racism remains one of the most pressing U.S. social problems, though it now takes forms that are more subtle than the lynchings and mob violence seen decades ago in some parts of the country.

Some groups tagged with racist acts deny the charge.

In California, a Republican group said it intended no racial overtone when its October newsletter depicted a fake food stamp bearing a likeness of Obama's head on a donkey's body surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon and other images evoking insulting stereotypes about African-Americans.

Some acts have targeted not Obama's black heritage -- his father was Kenyan and his white mother was from Kansas -- but the false notion that he is a Muslim.

A derogatory billboard in West Plains, Mo., went up last month showing a caricature of Obama wearing a turban.

"There are a lot of Republicans and McCain supporters who find it hard to believe that a black guy whose middle name is Hussein is going to be the next president of the United States," said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

David Wolff, a 52-year-old white Pennsylvania voter who plans to cast his ballot for Obama, said he commonly hears racist comments and thinks such sentiments are deeply rooted across America.

"One thing that could speed up the eradication of racism would be to have a charismatic, inspirational, transformational, generational black president," he said.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Matthew Bigg; Editing by David Storey)

I went to the Obama rally in Orlando on Monday and when we got there, it looked like we were at the end of a very long line. that was 2:30pm. But a half hour later, when the line was moving, I saw that the line went around the marriott and over to the next street and back down Paramore . The line was over a mile long. When we were let in, there was hardly any room to stand and they had to block off the line after a while. it was packed. Sen. Bill Nelson gave a good opening speach and the the two leading canadates for the democtatic ticket (and maybe even the two leading canadates for the white house) showed up and the crowd went wild. It was awesome to see so many people there to show thier support for Obama. He is always a great speaker. Hillary got the crowd going as well. She knows how to talk to the American people. The cops told the media that they think there were 75,000 people there, but it looked like another 50,000 were turned away. Came close to Obama's past weekend at St. Louis where he drew over 100,000 people. It was like there were people for miles from the stage. I don't know the street names very well in downtown Orlando, but the cop i spoke to said this was more then anything he had seen in his 21 years in Orlando. Oh, for you McCain fan(s) there was ONE person there to protest. He held a sign that said "Obama is bad for Isreal"

So John McCain needs to get to Washington to help fix the economy. I caught myself watching Letterman tonight and McCain was spose to be on. McCain canceled because he had to get back to Washington ASAP. He told Letterman, himself, that he was getting on a plane as they spoke. Well David Letterman made fun of him a little bit early into the show, typical for any late night talk show host, and goes on the say how much he respects the man for being a hero. Then, half way through the show, a live feed comes in that mcCain didn't blow off Katie Curick to get back to Washington. This made Dave very mad, of course. I want to know why not send Sarah Palin in to Letterman while McCain went back to Washington? Put in your back up QB when the first stringer has been taken out. Isn;t that what she is for? She has to know what to do if it comes time to replace McCain if, god forbid, anything should happen to him. This would have been great practice for her. A no show is worse then a replacement.

I found this to be interesting and this also shows how much more likely the republicans will say anything to get elected. I know there will be some that refuse to see this as true, honest, or beliveable, but I have to break their hearts saying that it is. The McCain't camp is making up attacks. Attacks that they even think are true. Sorry to burst their little bubble, but they are not true rumors or attacks. Most smart Americans will see these are just rumors. I'm surprised how many lies have come out of the McCain't Camp. Isn't a lie what caused McCain to lose the 2000 republican't nomination to Bush? I guess saying Obama has fathered two black children is true, but I don't think that will work for Karl Rove lies this time!

Ben Smith Mon Sep 22, 4:58 PM ET

Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.

But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.

The errors in McCain strategist Steve Schmidt’s charges against Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were particularly notable because they seemed unnecessary. Schmidt repeatedly gilded the lily: He exaggerated the Biden family's already problematic ties to the credit card industry; Obama’s embarrassing relationship with a 1960s radical; and an Obama supporter’s over-the-top attack on Sarah Palin when — in each case — the truth would have been damaging enough.

“Any time the Obama campaign is criticized at any level, the critics are immediately derided as liars,” Schmidt told reporters.

But as he went on to list a series of stories he thought reporters should be writing about Obama and Biden, in almost every instance he got the details wrong.

Schmidt criticized the press for the relatively sparse coverage of the fact that one of Biden’s sons, Hunter, is a registered federal lobbyist.

“His son is a lobbyist for the credit card and banking industry,” Schmidt said.

But Hunter Biden’s lobbying clients don’t include any banks or credit card companies. He did work, as a vice president and then as a consultant, for MBNA, a Delaware-based bank and credit card giant to which Biden had close ties. But he does not appear to have lobbied for the firm.

“Steve Schmidt lied — or just got it flat wrong," said Biden spokesman David Wade. "Hunter Biden has never — never — been a lobbyist for the credit card or banking industry."

Schmidt attacked Obama for his ties to William Ayers, who has spoken of his role in 1960s anti-war bombings committed by the Weather Underground.

"What we know for sure, and is beyond debate and argumentation is this: Senator Obama said that William Ayers is a guy that lives in his neighborhood. We know that that is a disingenuous and untruthful answer,” Schmidt said.

“Senator Obama began his political career in its early stages raising money at Ayers’ house,” he said.

Obama did hold a 1995 campaign event at Ayers’ house. It was not, however, a fundraiser, and Ayers did not contribute money to Obama’s first campaign, according to Illinois records.

Schmidt also complained of Obama backers’ attacks on McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“As soon as Gov. Palin was nominated, one of … Obama’s chief campaign surrogates, [Florida Rep.] Robert Wexler, went out and accused her of being a Nazi sympathizer,” Schmidt said. “Where is the outrage to that aspersion on the part of some of the biggest newspapers in the country?”

But Wexler didn’t call Palin a Nazi sympathizer. He called former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan a Nazi sympathizer, and attacked Palin for allegedly having endorsed him.

“John McCain's decision to select a vice presidential running mate that endorsed Pat Buchanan for president in 2000 is a direct affront to all Jewish Americans. Pat Buchanan is a Nazi sympathizer with a uniquely atrocious record on Israel,” Wexler said.

(Wexler was apparently wrong: Though Buchanan claimed that Palin had supported him, she said she backed Steve Forbes in 1996 and 2000, and no evidence has emerged to the contrary.)

Asked about the series of errors, McCain aides could not provide evidence to back up Schmidt’s assertions.

One McCain aide, Michael Goldfarb, said Politico was “quibbling with ridiculously small details when the basic things are completely right.”

Another, Brian Rogers, responded more directly:

“You are in the tank,” he e-mailed.

I found this on yahoo. Its from the AP. It is mainstream. It is a good story. I'm sure it will be laughed at by the republicans even though it is true. I just thought it was interesting. I hate the attack ads and I am getting realy tired of them. I saw a person this week in my neighborhood thats been a lifetime republican put an Obama sticker on his F-150. Thats something we smiled about resently.

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 12, 12:43 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The "Straight Talk Express" has detoured into doublespeak.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain, a self-proclaimed tell-it-like-it-is maverick, keeps saying his running mate, Sarah Palin, killed the federally funded Bridge to Nowhere when, in fact, she pulled her support only after the project became a political embarrassment. He said Friday that Palin never asked for money for lawmakers' pet projects as Alaska governor, even though she has sought nearly $200 million in earmarks this year. He says Obama would raise nearly everyone's taxes, when independent groups say 80 percent of families would get tax cuts instead.

Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain's skirting of facts has stood out this week. It has infuriated and flustered Obama's campaign, and campaign pros are watching to see how much voters disregard news reports noting factual holes in the claims.

McCain's persistence in pushing dubious claims is all the more notable because many political insiders consider him one of the greatest living victims of underhanded campaigning. Locked in a tight race with George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, McCain was rocked in South Carolina by a whisper campaign claiming he had fathered an illegitimate black child and was mentally unstable.

Shaken by the experience, McCain denounced less-than-truthful campaigning. Vowing to live up to his "straight talk" motto, he apologized for his reluctance to criticize the flying of the Confederate flag at South Carolina's state Capitol in a bid for votes. When the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacked the military record of Democrat and fellow Navy officer John Kerry in 2004, McCain called the ads "dishonest and dishonorable."

Now, top aides to McCain include Steve Schmidt, who has close ties to Karl Rove, Bush's premier political adviser in 2000.

Politicians usually modify or drop claims when a string of newspaper and TV news accounts concludes they are untrue or greatly exaggerated. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example, conceded she had not come under sniper fire in Bosnia after a batch of debunking articles subjected her to scorn during her primary contest against Obama.

But McCain and his running mate Palin, the Alaska governor, were defiant this week in the face of similar reports. Day after day she said she had told Congress "no thanks" to the so-called Bridge to Nowhere, a rural Alaska project that was abandoned when critics challenged its costs and usefulness. For nearly a week, major news outlets had documented that Palin supported the bridge when running for governor in 2006, noting that she turned against it only after it became an object of ridicule in Alaska and a symbol of Congress's out-of-control earmarking.

The McCain-Palin campaign made at least three other aggressive claims this week that omitted key details or made dubious assumptions to criticize Obama. It equated lawmakers' requests for money for special projects with corruption, even though Palin has sought millions of dollars in such "earmarks" this year.

It produced an Internet ad implying that Obama had called Palin a pig when he used a familiar phrase, which McCain also has used, about putting "lipstick on a pig" to try to make a bad situation look better. McCain supporters said Obama was slyly alluding to Palin's description of herself as a pit bull in lipstick, but there was nothing in his remarks to support the claim. Obama accused the GOP campaign of "lies and phony outrage."

The lipstick wars were fully engaged when the McCain campaign produced another ad saying Obama favored "comprehensive sex education" for kindergartners. The charge triggered the sort of headlines becoming increasingly common in major newspapers and wire services monitoring the factual content of political ads and speeches.

"Ad on Sex Education Distorts Obama Policy," was the headline on a New York Times article Thursday. "McCain's 'Education' Spot is Dishonest, Deceptive," The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" article said.

Major news outlets have written such fact-checking articles for years. "But in the last two election cycles, the very notion that the facts matter seems to be under assault," said Michael X. Delli Carpini, an authority on political ads at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. "Candidates and their consultants seem to have learned that as long as you don't back down from your charges or claims, they will stick in the minds of voters regardless of their accuracy or at a minimum, what the truth is will remain murky, a matter of opinion rather than fact."

With Palin giving McCain's campaign a boost in the polls, Obama supporters are nervously watching to see what impact the latest claims will have. Surveys already show that most people believe Obama would raise their taxes — a regular McCain claim — even though independent groups such as the Tax Policy Center concluded that four out of five U.S. households would receive tax cuts under his proposals.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds defended the campaign's statements. "We include factual backup in every one of our TV spots," he said Thursday.

Obama, of course, has made exaggerated or questionable assertions as well. Earlier this year, for instance, he repeated a claim that more black men are in prison than in college, after news accounts refuted it. He also used a McCain remark about having troops in Iraq for "100 years" to exaggerate McCain's proposals for being fully engaged militarily in that country.

In general, however, Obama has been quicker to react to news accounts challenging his accuracy. Faced with skeptical reports this year, for instance, he stopped saying he "worked his way" through college, and instead credited hard work and scholarships.

Dan Schnur, a former McCain aide who now teaches politics at the University of Southern California, said McCain and Obama learned they must stretch the truth "when staying on the high road didn't work out to their benefit."

McCain, he said, "tried it his way. He had a poverty tour and nobody covered it. He had a national service tour, and everybody made fun of it. He proposed these joint town halls" with Obama, "and nothing come of it. Through the spring and early summer, that approach didn't work. You can't blame him for taking a step back and reassessing."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Charles Babington covers national politics for The Associated Press.

Found this story on Yahoo. Its not really for either side, I just found it interesting. Enjoy!

Alexander Burns Wed Sep 3, 1:11 PM ET

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Democrats could reap electoral rewards from several years of political organizing, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said, a sentiment echoed by several other prominent conservatives.

On the eve of John McCain’s formal nomination Thursday at the Republican National Convention, top Republicans acknowledged that Democrats will hold a significant organizational advantage in the fall campaign. Before the 2006 congressional elections, “the left and the Democrats had spent seven years putting together one of the most powerful political coalitions that had ever been built,” DeLay said Wednesday.

“The left has been incredible. They went and decided to put resources to work,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the third-ranking House Republican. “When you’re talking about the tactics, when you’re talking about the organization, ... that’s where we’re at a disadvantage.”

Cantor cited as an example the e-mail and text message database Barack Obama’s campaign used to announce the name of his running mate.

“That e-mail list or text list now just inures to the benefit of the Obama campaign,” he said. “It really gives them an organizational advantage.”

DeLay and Cantor described their party’s tactical shortcomings at a breakfast panel hosted by Politico, Yahoo News and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Joining them on the panel were former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review.

Santorum, who lost his Senate seat in the 2006 elections, agreed that Democrats had been successful at building their party’s political infrastructure.

“Liberals invest their money in government,” Santorum said, arguing that third-party advertising, “driven, unfortunately ... by our campaign finance laws,” helped Democrats erase Republicans’ historic advantage in fundraising.

He also claimed that liberals’ influence in Hollywood and other cultural arenas helped Democrats take power in Washington.

“The left controls ... those mechanisms of power in our country,” Santorum said. “All we have is the family. All we have is the churches.”

It wasn’t just in organization and fundraising, however, where panelists said the Republican Party was at a disadvantage. Some suggested the GOP had to make up ground among the middle- and working-class voters that the Obama-Biden ticket is expected to pursue.

“I think John McCain needs to make a real, substantive case about how he’s going to help average voters with their cost of living, on energy, on health care and on taxes,” Lowry said. “Barack Obama is offering more middle-class tax relief than John McCain.”

“I think the middle class, the working class is where we need to go,” he added. “Sarah Palin can help him make that connection.”

Cantor, who was often mentioned as a possible running mate for McCain, agreed.

“We need to do a better job of advocating for the middle class in this country,” he said, pointing to gas prices and offshore drilling as issues on which the GOP could connect with voters’ economic anxieties.

The Republicans were not entirely gloomy: Like most of their fellow conservatives at the convention this week, panelists were upbeat about McCain’s choice of Palin as his running mate.

“The jury’s out on whether she’ll be able to perform at this level, but so far, what we’ve seen from her, I’d be optimistic,” Lowry said. “I think the press is trying to knock her out before she even had a chance.”

DeLay agreed, predicting that critical media coverage of Palin — including coverage of the announcement that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant — would help energize conservative female voters.

“The media has done more for John McCain in the last two days than he’s done for himself in the last year and a half,” DeLay said. “Trashing her is waking up the sleeping giant, and the sleeping giant is Republican women.”

Still, even if the McCain-Palin ticket is successful in November, no one was willing to predict broader gains for the Republican Party.

Moderator Jim VandeHei, executive editor of Politico, asked: “Is there anybody on the panel who doesn’t think Republicans will lose House and Senate seats?”

For a long moment, the panel was silent, before Cantor and DeLay jumped in with the less-than-optimistic prediction that Republican congressional candidates would not fare as poorly as expected.

I found this story on yahoo. Did you know that Sarah Palin was in the news business in the late 80's and early 90's? She did sports.

from Yahoo:Tony Hopfinger and Ken Fireman Sun Aug 31, 1:39 PM ET

Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Senator John McCain defended Sarah Palin, his vice presidential choice, as a ``soul mate'' who will take on corruption in Washington, even as a growing chorus in the Alaska governor's home state questioned her credentials.

``She's a reformer,'' McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said today on Fox News Sunday. ``I have watched her for many years; I've seen her take on her own party.'' Asked whether Palin is the best person for the job, he said, ``Oh yeah.''

McCain and Palin will accept the presidential and vice presidential nominations at the Republican National Convention, which begins tomorrow in St. Paul, Minnesota.

``This is a person that will help me reform Washington,'' McCain said, adding, ``What this brings is a spirit of reform and change that is vital.''

Still, some Alaskans -- including a supporter of Palin's 2006 run for governor and a former staff member -- expressed reservations about the choice.

``She's not qualified, she doesn't have the judgment, to be next in line to the president of the United States,'' Larry Persily, who until June worked in the governor's Washington office as a congressional liaison, said in a phone interview yesterday.

A supporter of Palin's campaign for governor, Jim Whitaker, the Republican mayor of Fairbanks, also questioned Palin's readiness to serve as vice president in a phone interview yesterday.

`Avid Supporter'

Whitaker said that while he is ``still an avid supporter'' of Palin as governor, he will continue to back Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Palin, 44, is less than halfway through her first term as governor. Before her election to that post, she served on a state commission that regulated the energy industry and was mayor of the town of Wasilla, which had an estimated population in 2007 of 9,780, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Persily, who worked for three different governors in the state's Washington office, said he left the job on good terms with Palin. He said he left out of frustration because the state was ``fighting the same old wars'' on trying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development.

`He Created Her'

Persily said Palin owed her election to the unpopularity of then-Governor Frank Murkowski, whom Palin defeated in the Republican primary by running on a platform of overhauling state government. ``He created her,'' Persily said. Murkowski declined to comment.

Two McCain backers who were mentioned as possible choices for the vice-presidential nomination expressed support for Palin today.

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' program that McCain made a ``bold choice'' in selecting Palin. ``This is about changing Washington so it works again,'' he said. ``John McCain has found a maverick who has done exactly the same thing at the state level that he's done at the federal level.''

McCain adviser Carly Fiorina said of Palin on CBS: ``This is a person of great accomplishment. I have heard from many women and they are truly excited about this pick.''

McCain contrasted what he said was Palin's willingness to take on senior Alaskan Republicans like Murkowski and Senator Ted Stevens with Obama's record.

A phone call to Palin spokesman Sharon Leighow requesting comment wasn't immediately returned.

`Executive by Nature'

Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell defended Palin's readiness to serve as vice president. ``Of course she is,'' he told reporters on an Aug. 29 conference call. ``She is an executive by nature.''

Palin spokesman Bill McAllister said on the same call that Palin is older than John F. Kennedy was when he ran for president in 1960 and that ``of four people on two national tickets, she is the only one with executive experience.''

McCain, on Fox today, also sought to contrast Palin with his Democratic rival.

``Senator Obama has never taken on the leaders of his party,'' McCain said. ``She's been an independent spirit that has taken them on at every opportunity.''

Home-state newspapers have questioned McCain's choice. An Aug. 29 editorial in the Fairbanks News-Miner newspaper also raised questions about Palin's readiness for national office.

``Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job,'' the newspaper wrote. ``McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation's when he created the possibility that she might fill it.''

The Anchorage Daily News, the state's largest paper, noted in an editorial that Palin is enmeshed in a legislative investigation of her July 11 firing of the state's public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan. He has since asserted that he received pressure from Palin's family and administration to fire a state trooper involved in a contentious divorce from Palin's sister.

Check this out. I enjoy watching the polls, but do not take them to heart. This poll was done well.

 

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_
Florida701.pdf

Obama, McCain close in Florida; Martinez vulnerable

 

Raleigh, N.C. –

to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling.

It’s a marked improvement from PPP’s last Florida poll, taken in March at the heart of

the Jeremiah Wright controversy, which showed him trailing 50-39.

Party unification is the key to Obama’s improved standing in the state. At that time he

was getting the support of only 60% of self identified Democrats. In this survey he’s

polling at 74% with them, and also leading 45-33 among independent voters.

PPP surveys over the last two weeks have shown Obama with leads in the swing states of

Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, and now Florida.

“It’s a long way until November, but Barack Obama would be looking at an Electoral

College landslide if the election was today,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public

Policy Polling. “Our polls in Florida and Michigan over the last two weeks have also

served as confirmation that controversy over the seating of the two states’ delegations at

the convention is not causing the Democratic Party any long term issues.”

PPP also took a look ahead to the 2010 Senate election and found that Mel Martinez is

quite vulnerable. His approval rating is only 23%, with 43% of the state’s voters

disapproving of his performance.

In a possible contest against the state’s Chief Financial Office, Alex Sink, Martinez trails

37-31. Against Congressman Robert Wexler, it would be a 33-33 draw.

PPP surveyed 723 likely voters from June 26

3.6%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce

additional error that is more difficult to quantify.

Complete results are attached and can be found at www.publicpolicypolling.com.

I've been bloging with other sites for a few years and on every other blog site a website called therealmccain.com has come up. This site doesn't have it yet so I figured I would pass it on so everyone can see his double talk and backwards logic. This man sounds like Bush did in his first run for president. There are videos to back up the idea that this man will lead this wonderful country that we live in into a farther unjust war. If you thought Kerry was a flip-flopper, then Mr. McCain takes the cake...like he did the same day Katrina hit. Even republicans agree.

If your going to stay home on election day and not vote for anyone, then you have no reason to complain! I brought this up in another blog, but at work today, i heard someone say that they won't vote at all because of the choices, I felt like I had to say then don't talk about it. If voting doesn't matter to you, then don't worry about it. I don't care if you don't vote, but then you have no right to talk to the rest of us Americans who did our civic duty and voted for our picks! Please vote though! Higher vote counts represent who America really wants.

Michael Dudley is the son of a preacher man. He's a born-again Christian with two family members in the military. He grew up in the Bible Belt, where almost everyone he knew was Republican. But this fall, he's breaking a handful of stereotypes: He plans to vote for Democrat Barack Obama. "I think a lot of Christians are having trouble getting behind everything the Republicans stand for," said Dudley, 20, a sophomore at Seattle Pacific University. Dudley's disenchantment with the GOP isn't unique among young, devoutly Christian voters. According to a September 2007 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 15 percent of white evangelicals between 18 and 29, a group traditionally a shoo-in for the GOP, say they no longer identify with the Republican Party. Older evangelicals are also questioning their traditional allegiance, but not at the same rate.

 Found this and thought it was good. Very honest. People need to step away from their politics and just learn a little about this man that can be the next President.

Mr. Cool's intensity

By David IgnatiusSunday, May 11, 2008 

 

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic
le/2008/05/09/AR2008050902045.html

Barack Obama called himself an "imperfect messenger" in his victory speech in North Carolina last Tuesday. That was a refreshing touch of humility, but it was also a fact. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is far from perfect. But he has demonstrated the most mysterious and precious gift in politics, which is grace under pressure.

Obama has remained "Mr. Cool," even when his campaign seemed to be blowing up around him. He didn't do the politically expedient things: He didn't wear his patriotism on his lapel with an American flag pin; he didn't promptly disown his race-baiting former pastor, Jeremiah Wright; he didn't apologize for comments by his wife, Michelle, that many Americans found unpatriotic. You can say what you like about the substance of these positions, but the interesting fact is that Obama didn't flinch.

"Yes, we know what's coming. I'm not naive," Obama said in the North Carolina speech. "We've already seen it . . . pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy, in the hopes that the media will play along."

That's the message: Attack me; attack my pastor; attack my wife; bring it on. I'm ready.

The past several months have revealed Obama's vulnerabilities, but they've also shown his ability to take a punch. Many whites are furious that he didn't throw Wright overboard sooner, but blacks surely like him all the more for resisting the pressure. And there's an instinctive American fondness for people who don't rat out their friends, even when their friends are creeps. That's why a Wright-based strategy may backfire for the Republicans, just as it did for Hillary Clinton.

Obama has a transcendent ambition: It's part of what gives him the "man of destiny" quality. When you see him on TV or in pictures, he always seems to be looking into the middle distance -- not to any person in particular but toward "the people" and the far horizon.

One way to measure Obama's sense of destiny is to think about the choices before him when he graduated from Harvard Law School as the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review: He could have walked into a Supreme Court clerkship or harvested a fortune working for a fancy law firm. But Obama's ambition was much bigger. He went to Chicago to start building a base to run for . . . well, we know where this story leads.

People who met Obama in those early days in Chicago say they were struck by two qualities: First was his remarkable ability to work across racial lines; the second was his political ambition. His strategy was to straddle -- between black and white, between rich and poor, between Harvard and the streets. That's still the essence of his appeal: I am the person who can bring America together because I contain within myself all of its contradictions.

That protean quality is what Obama liked about his pastor. In his first autobiography (still the Rosetta stone for decoding the Democratic candidate), he says this of Wright and his church: "It was this capacious talent of his -- this ability to hold together, if not reconcile, the conflicting strains of black experience -- upon which Trinity's success had ultimately been built."

Obama's problem with Wright back then wasn't that he was too radical but that he was too bourgeois. Obama says that he told Wright at their first meeting that he worried "that the church is too upwardly mobile." He didn't want to be surrounded by "buppies" -- black urban professionals -- who had the lesser goal of making money.

What's compelling about Obama is that fusion of grace and ambition. He's playing for the highest stakes, but he makes it look easy. That cool, graceful quality evokes John F. Kennedy and the Rat Pack -- all these sleek, handsome men in silk suits and skinny ties who never break character, never miss a beat.

Albert Murray titled a collection of his essays on black culture "The Omni-Americans." That was his view of the African American experience, that it pointed in every direction at once -- toward anger and healing, toward rage at America and a patriotism that has led blacks to serve in disproportionate numbers in the military, toward the paradox of hating America and being intensely loyal to it.

That's the history-changing package that Barack Obama brings to the presidential race. Based on last week's primary results, we have a rendezvous in November with that vision of "Omni-America" and the transcendent and potentially disruptive change it represents.

I have highlighted what Hillary Clinton said in Red

I have highlighted what Barak Obama said in Blue

I have highlighted anything the two agree on in Green

 

PHILADELPHIA - Hillary Rodham Clinton said emphatically Wednesday night that Barack Obama can win the White House this fall, undercutting her efforts to deny him the Democratic presidential nomination by suggesting he would lead the party to defeat.

"Yes, yes, yes," she said when pressed about Obama's electability during a campaign debate six days before the Pennsylvania primary.

Asked a similar question about Clinton, Obama said "Absolutely and I've said so before" — a not-so-subtle dig at his rival who had previously declined to make a similar statement about him.

In a 90-minute debate, both rivals pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000, and said they would respond forcefully if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and uses them against Israel.

"An attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation by the United States," said Clinton.

Obama said, "The U.S. would take appropriate action."

They differed over Social Security when Obama said he favored raising payroll taxes on higher-income individuals. Clinton said she was opposed, her rival quickly cut in and countered that she had said earlier in the campaign she was open to the idea.

Under current law, workers must pay the payroll tax on their first $102,000 in wages. Obama generally has expressed support for a plan to reimpose the tax beginning at a level of $200,000 or more.

The debate was the 21st of the campaign for the nomination, an epic struggle that could last weeks or even months longer.

Pennsylvania, with 158 delegates at stake, is a must-win contest for Clinton, who leads in the polls and hopes for a strong victory to propel her through the other states that vote before the primary season ends on June 3.

Obama leads in the delegate chase, 1,643-1,504, with 2,025 needed for the nomination. And despite a recent gaffe, he picked up endorsements during the day from three superdelegates from a pair of states with primaries on May 6 — Reps. Andre Carson of Indiana and Mel Watt and David Price of North Carolina.

After primaries and caucuses in 42 of the 50 states, Obama leads his rival in convention delegates, popular votes and states won. She is struggling to stop his drive on the nomination by appealing to party leaders who will attend the convention as superdelegates that he will preside over an electoral defeat at a moment of great opportunity after eight years of Republican rule.

The former first lady has never denied published reports that she once told New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson that Obama couldn't win when he called to tell her he would be endorsing the Illinois senator.

And at a news conference earlier this month in California, Clinton sidestepped when asked directly whether Obama would win if he were the Democratic nominee. "I am sure we will have a united Democratic Party. I will do everything possible to make sure we can win and I am confident we will have a Democrat in the White House next year," she said at the time.

Asked a similar question at the debate, she provided a similar answer at first. "I think we have to beat John McCain and I have every reason to believe we're going to have a Democratic president and it's going to be Barack or me."

Pressed by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News to answer the question directly, she said, "Yes, yes, yes ... Now I think I can do a better job."

In a debate that moved swiftly between politics and policy, Clinton issued a first-ever public apology for having claimed erroneously that she landed in Bosnia under sniper fire in 1996 as first lady.

"I may be a lot of things but I am not dumb," she said, adding that she had written in her book that there had been no gunfire during the episode. She said she was embarrassed by her error. "I'm sorry I said it," she added.

She previously had explained her incorrect comments by saying she had misspoken.

Obama later erred by saying he had never favored a ban on handguns even though as a state Senate candidate in 1996 he filled out a questionnaire from an Illinois voter group saying he would support such a ban.

"My writing wasn't on that particular questionnaire ... as I said, I have never favored an all-out ban on handguns," Obama said, even though his handwritten notes did appear on its front page. The reponse to the question about guns was typed.

Obama had more explaining to do moments later, when he was asked about his controversial comment that small town Americans become bitter because of economic adversity, and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" as a result.

He said he was attempting to say that because voters feel ignored by government, "they end up being much more concerned about votes around things like guns where traditions have been passed on from generation to generation. And those are incredibly important to them."

"People don't cling to their traditions on hunting and guns" out of frustration with their government, Clinton said. She added that Obama had a fundamental misunderstanding on the role of religion and faith.

Both Obama and Clinton sidestepped when asked if they would place their rival on the ticket as vice presidential running mate in the fall.

"I think very highly of Senator Clinton's record, but I think it is premature at this point to talk about who the vice presidential candidates will be because we're still trying to determine who the nominee will be," Obama said.

Clinton was similarly noncommittal. "I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that one of us takes the oath of office next January. I think that has to be the overriding goal," she said.

Neither rival was willing to say they would ask President Bush to serve in any capacity after he leaves office. Obama volunteered he would be "more likely to ask the advice of the current president's father. He said, that as president, George H. W. Bush had presided over a "wise foreign policy" at the time the Cold War was ending.

ABC News sponsored and televised the debate, with Charles Gibson and Stephanopoulos moderating.

 

I wish FOX had done this, but me being a democrat, i had to watch this. Both have a very good policy for leaving Iraq and I will support either one in November (Can't stand McCain or Nader....or Ron Paul) Who do you think will get the democratic nod? I am going with Obama getting it.