The REAL Polarbear's Blog

Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.

Mrs. Clinton came to her decision after additional discussion with President-elect Barack Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, said one of the confidants, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the situation. Mr. Obama’s office told reporters Thursday that the nomination is “on track” but Clinton associates only confirmed Friday afternoon that she has decided.

“She’s ready,” said the confidant. Mrs. Clinton was reassured after talking again with Mr. Obama because their first meeting in Chicago last week “was so general,” the confidant said. The purpose of the follow-up talk, he added, was not to extract particular concessions but “just getting comfortable” with the idea of working together.

A second Clinton associate confirmed that her camp believes they have a done deal. Senior Obama advisers said Friday morning that the offer had not been formally accepted and no announcement will be made until after Thanksgiving. But they said they were convinced that the nascent alliance was now ready to be sealed.

The apparent accord between perhaps the two leading figures in the Democratic Party climaxed a week-long drama that riveted the nation’s capital. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton fought the most competitive Democratic nomination battle in modern times, one that polarized their party for months and left bitterness in both camps. But in asking Mrs. Clinton to join his Cabinet, Mr. Obama signaled that he wants to turn a rival into a partner and she concluded that she could have the most influence by saying yes.

The decision followed days of intense vetting and negotiations intended to clear any potential obstacles to her taking the job due to her husband’s global business and philanthropic activities. Lawyers for Mr. Obama and former President Bill Clinton combed through his finances and crafted a set of guidelines for his future activities intended to avoid any appearances of conflict of interest should she take the job.

People close to the vetting said Mr. Clinton turned over the names of 208,000 donors to his foundation and library and agreed to all of the conditions requested by Mr. Obama’s transition team, including restrictions on his future paid speeches and role at his international foundation.

Finally a man I am proud to declare "My President".    I haven't felt that way since Clinton left office eight long years ago.

Our new First Family.    And what a beautiful family they are.

And our new First Lady, Michelle Obama.    A beautiful, attractive, strong woman.   You're not gonna find that in Cindy or Sarah.

O-H-I-O = O-B-A-M-A!!    Finally, Ohio is a Blue State again!!  

The new President and Vice President!!!

It truly is the dawn of a new day in America.   A great day!!!

John McCain may proudly announce the fact he has the support of "Joe the Plumber".     LA-DEEE-FRICKEN-DAH!!!!     Barack Obama has some way better on his team, Bob the Builder.

Bob the Builder, the kids show character, now he gets it.     Bob's question always is, "Can we fix it?"     That question has to be the most important one this election.     Never before has this country been in such an awful place and in need of so much renovation.     Luckily for us, Bob's answer is always "Yes We Can"!!!    Just like Obama.     Bob and Obama have one thing in common, they both love to fix things.     With a man like Barack in the Oval Office, I am 100% confident that we can and will fix things.     Restore our nation to the way it was before this disaster known as the Bush administration and Republican control.     We will choose HOPE over FEAR, CHANGE will triumph over the STATUS QUO.     In the words of Harriet Tubman and Hillary Clinton at the DNC:

If you hear the dogs, keep going.

If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.

If they're shouting after you, keep going.

Don't ever stop. Keep going.

If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

And we will keep going.    We're now about one day away from election day.    That changing day.

Tonight, I am joining my fellow Liberal Democrat Keith Olbermann and denouncing the actions of this moron.     Warning, the following photos are graphic and depict violence and brutality against a presidential candidate.    The degenerate who created this claims it is "art" in the Halloween spirit.    BULL!!     This is NOT art, this is NOT funny.    This is disgusting and violent.     The person hanging here could be anyone.    That could easily be Obama or Biden or any other candidate.    Doesn't matter who it is, it is uncalled for and inappropriate.    And it should be removed immediately.

Now you know I'm a proud Liberal Democrat and I strongly dislike McCain and Palin.    But I in no way approve of or stand for actions like this.     This jackass is NOT a member of MY Democratic party.      With all the threats of violence against the Democratic candidate, it shows really poor judgement to do something like this.

VIDEO: Keith Olbermann's "Worst Person"---10/27/2007

Here is the dumb#$@ that made this ridiculous display.

And here is the scumbag with the deserved title of WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD.

Barbara West and the Biden Interview DEBUNKED

            By polarbear_88

Barbara West, the reporter who asked Senator Biden the infamous “Marxist” question, to which Biden replied “is this a real question?”  has questionable ties.    According to her official WFTV biography, Ms. West is married to Wade West, a “media consultant”.   Wade West is a GOP Media Consultant.    What a coincidence that the TV “journalist” who asked this loaded, biased question happens to have a GOP official husband.    It’s also interesting to note(again according to her bio) that Barbara West is a Health reporter at WFTV.    Now why is a Health reporter interviewing a political candidate?    Do they not have a political reporter?     The whole issue smells foul and Mr. Biden was absolutely correct to call out this “journalist” on her actions and not subject his wife to this biased, excuse of a news source.     Anybody with the slightest clue about journalism would know that question was bogus.    Did she NOT listen to what Mr. Biden said before she asked that question?    Apparently she must have pulled that “Marxist” nonsense out of her rear.    And to answer your question Sneator Biden, that question was a joke.    A very sad, unfunny joke.

VIDEO: Barbara West Interview

Barbara's Biography:

Two men have appeared in a US court accused of making threats to kill Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal agents say.

They were also charged with possessing an unregistered firearm and conspiracy to steal from a licensed gun dealer.

The pair were named as Daniel Cowart, 20, and Paul Schlesselman, 18.

Court papers allege that the neo-Nazi skinheads planned to assassinate Mr Obama in a murder spree targeting more than 100 black people.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said the men had made their first appearance before a court in Jackson, Tennessee, on Monday after being arrested last week in Crockett County in the same state.

An ATF official said agents had seized a rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and three pistols during the arrests.

The two men have not yet entered a plea but are due to appear in court again later this week.

'Amateurish'

The pair allegedly planned to rob a gun store and then carry out a killing spree at an unnamed predominantly African-American high school, the Associated Press quoted court records as saying.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office of the ATF, told AP that the two men had planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

Mr Cavanaugh said the men had sought to go on a national killing spree, with Mr Obama as its final target.

"They said that would be their last, final act - that they would attempt to kill Senator Obama," Mr Cavanaugh told AP.

"They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."

The court documents quoted the two men as saying that they would dress up in white tuxedos and top hats then drive their car as fast as possible toward Senator Obama, shooting at him from the windows.

The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says that although the plot seems to have been amateurish and the threat to Barack Obama himself not particularly credible, the US authorities clearly believe that the two had the means and the intent to carry out some kind of attack on black students.

The Obama campaign had no initial comment on the report.

Mr Obama, who if elected will become the first black US president, is leading Republican rival John McCain in opinion polls ahead of the 4 November election.

Now do you see how ridiculous this is?    Obama's tax plan is BETTER than McCain's continuation of "trickle down" economics.

SPETEMBER: 10-points          OCTOBER: 4-points

Looks like even McCain's own state doesn't want to take the risk on a McCain-Palin presidency.    Look at the numbers.   What has changed in the McCain camp between September and October?    SARAH PALIN!!!    The people of Arizona know McCain is old and may not complete his term.    Even they don't want an America run by that woman!!

By MIKE ALLEN | 10/25/08 10:49 PM EDT    
The Dems' Project New West has its sights set on Arizona and they say McCain's lead is down to a slim 4 points. Photo: AP

Democrats are circulating a poll showing Sen. John McCain losing ground in his home state of Arizona, an ominous sign for his beleaguered campaign as state after state turns blue.

Project New West, which aims to build the Democratic Party in the Intermountain West, says the Republican leads Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the Grand Canyon State, 48 percent to 44 percent.

The pollsters call that a “dramatic shift” from a survey they took in mid-September, which had McCain ahead by 14 points, 54 percent to 40 percent.

“Bad News for McCain: Presidential Contest in Arizona has Closed in Arizona And McCain Now Leads By Just 4 Points,” says a memo from pollsters Andrew Myers of Myers Research and Strategic Services and Lisa Grove of Grove Research.

The poll of 600 likely Arizona voters was taken Thursday and Friday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

McCain has represented Arizona in the House or Senate since 1982.

In 2000, President Bush won Arizona by 6 percentage points. In 2004, he widened that to 11 percentage points.

Most polling has showed McCain winning his home state easily. The Real Clear Politics average of Arizona polls gives McCain an 11.3-point advantage over Obama.

The McCain campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Here is ratrapper:

And mystere:

Both like to call others "puppets" for Obama.   Maybe it is because THEY are puppets themselves.

What the HELL, Johnnie?

WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president on Sunday, criticizing his own Republican Party for what he called its narrow focus on irrelevant personal attacks over a serious approach to challenges he called unprecedented.

Powell, who for many years was considered the most likely candidate to become the first African-American president, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was not supporting Obama because of his race. He said he had watched both Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for many months and thought “either one of them would be a good president.”

But he said McCain’s choices in the last few weeks — especially his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his vice presidential running mate — had raised questions in his mind about McCain’s judgment.

Powell also told NBC’s Tom Brokaw that he was “troubled” by Republicans’ personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and the recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, a co-founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.

Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.

“I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”

In an interview Sunday on Fox News, McCain said he was not surprised by the announcement.

“I’ve always admired and respected General Powell,” said McCain, who cited the endorsements he had received from former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger. “We have a respectful disagreement.”

Bolstering Obama’s international credentials
Obama said in an interview airing Monday on NBC’s TODAY that he welcomed Powell’s support and looked forward to discussing what role, if any, Powell might have in an Obama administration should he be elected.

“Here is what I can say for certain: He will have a role as one of my advisers.  He has already served in that function even before he endorsed me,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer. “Whether he wants to take a formal role — whether there’s something that’s a good fit for him — I think is something that he and I would have to discuss.”

Powell, a retired Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush before becoming secretary of state in the current administration, is one of the most highly decorated military officers of modern times and an admired figure in both parties. The Obama campaign is likely to cite the endorsement as an answer to critics and undecided voters who have questioned the foreign policy credentials of Obama, a first-term senator whose national experience amounts to four years in the Senate.

Powell said a major part of his decision to turn his back on his own party was his conclusion that Obama was the better option to repair frayed U.S. relations with allies overseas.

“This is the time for outreach,” Powell said, saying the next president would have to “reach out and show the world there is a new administration that is willing to reach out.”

In particular, he said, he welcomed Obama’s president to “talk to people we haven’t talked to,” a reference to Obama’s controversial statement that he would be open to direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders.

“I think that [Obama] has a definite way of doing business that will serve us well,” Powell said.

Won’t campaign for Obama
As recently as a month ago, Powell said that electing an African-American president would be “electrifying” for the world but that he remained undecided. The unsteadiness of the Republican campaign in recent weeks, especially on the economic crisis, went a long way toward pushing him off the fence, he said.

“It isn’t easy for me to disappoint Senator McCain as I have this morning,” said Powell, who emphasized that he would not campaign for Obama because of his admiration for McCain’s long record of service in the military and in Congress.

But as he examined both campaigns in the last few weeks, he said, he became “concerned” that “in the case of Mr. McCain, he was a little unsure how to deal with the economic problems.”

“Every day, there was a different approach,” he said, adding that he also “would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.”

McCain would be a good president, Powell said, but Obama is “a transformational figure” who would be an “exceptional” leader.

“I truly believe that at this point in America’s history we need a president who will not just continue ... basically the policies we have followed in recent years,” he said. “We need a president with transformational qualities.”

For that reason, he said, “I will be voting for Barack Obama.”

VIDEO: Hatred at a Palin Rally in Johnstown, PA

WARNING: This video contains inappropriate material and language, viewer discretion is advised.

Here is a look at the kind of people who attend McCain/Palin(emphasis on the Palin) rallies:

I shudder at the thought any of these animals have guns.   

This one truly angered me.   You cannot see it in this screencap(but it is visible in the video) there are young children there, in the crowd soaking up all this hatred.  

"Little Hussein".   Not only a racist comparison of a Black man to an ape, but also a reference to the lie that Obama is Muslim.   Barack Obama is NOT Muslim.

Another shot of this dirty old man, who oddly enough looks like the dancing guy on the Six Flags commercials years ago.

Is this a political rally or the line outside the guest entrance at the "Jerry Springer Show"?

This election has been something else.    The ignorant, uneducated white trash have come out---to support Sarah Palin, aka White Trash Barbie.    And to think such a big deal is made over the voters registered by ACORN.    Can you believe that some of these people in this video might actually vote?    This is why our country is in the state it is.

Title says it all!!!

VIDEO: McCain Burned By His Own Fire

By PHILIP ELLIOTT and BETH FOUHY – 23 hours ago

LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — Some of the anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is mostly letting it flare. A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Barack Obama. They're making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of "traitor," "terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

Presidential candidates are accustomed to raucous rallies this close to Election Day and welcome the enthusiasm. But they are also traditionally monitors of sorts from the stage. Part of their job is to leaven proceedings if tempers run ragged and to rein in an out-of-bounds comment from the crowd.

Not so much this week, at GOP rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and other states.

When a visibly angry McCain supporter in Waukesha, Wis., on Thursday told the candidate "I'm really mad" because of "socialists taking over the country," McCain stoked the sentiment. "I think I got the message," he said. "The gentleman is right." He went on to talk about Democrats in control of Congress.

The anti-Obama taunts and jeers are noticeably louder when McCain appears with Palin, a big draw for GOP social conservatives. She accused Obama this week of "palling around with terrorists" because of his past, loose association with a 1960s radical. If less directly, McCain, too, has sought to exploit Obama's Chicago neighborhood ties to William Ayers, while trying simultaneously to steer voters' attention to his plans for the financial crisis.

The Alaska governor did not campaign with McCain on Friday, and his rally in La Crosse was much more subdued than those earlier in the week when the two campaigned together. Still, one woman shouted "traitor" when McCain told voters Obama would raise their taxes.

Volunteers worked up chants from the crowd of "U.S.A." and "John McCain, John McCain," in an apparent attempt to drown out boos and other displays of negative energy.

Palin, at a fundraiser in Ohio on Friday, told supporters "it's not negative and it's not mean-spirited" to scrutinize Obama's iffy associations.

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Friday the outbursts weren't a "big deal," but acknowledged considerable frustration among some of the candidate's supporters.

"Political rallies have always attracted people who are emotionally connected to the outcome of the election," Davis said, adding, "I'm confident it has nothing to do with what our candidates are doing or saying right now."

Obama disputed that assessment at a campaign rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Friday. "It's easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division," Obama said. "In the last couple of days, we've seen a barrage of nasty insinuations and attacks."

The Obama campaign has kept up a daily drumbeat about McCain's "lies" and the Democratic candidate himself has routinely distorted his rival's record and agenda. Obama calls McCain "erratic" in a subtle but unmistakable attempt to exploit questions about the Republican's age and temperament. But his rallies and rhetoric have lacked the personal venom coming at him from the other side.

The Secret Service confirmed Friday that it had investigated an episode reported in The Washington Post in which someone in Palin's crowd in Clearwater, Fla., shouted "kill him," on Monday, meaning Obama. There was "no indication that there was anything directed at Obama," Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told AP. "We looked into it because we always operate in an atmosphere of caution."

Fitting with McCain's theme that people don't know enough about Obama, his co-chairman Frank Keating broached a subject Thursday that got one of Hillary Rodham Clinton's advisers removed from her inner circle during her Democratic primary campaign.

Keating described Obama as a "guy of the street" who should be more candid about his drug use as a young man. Obama wrote about his teenage experimentation with drugs and alcohol in his memoirs.

The McCain campaign began running a new television ad criticizing Obama for his relationship with Ayers, a founder of the violent Weather Underground group during the Vietnam War era. Obama and Ayers are neighbors in Chicago, and the two once served together on a charity board. Ayers held a house party for Obama when he was launching his career in Chicago politics, but the two are not close friends.

"When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers," the ad says. "When discovered, he lied."

In two events this week, warm-up speakers at GOP rallies have used Obama's middle name, Hussein, to seed doubts about the Democrat, a tactic meant to draw attention to the false rumors that Obama is a Muslim, as well as to belittle him. "On Nov. 4, let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened," a sheriff told Palin's Florida rally.

McCain once stepped forward directly to denounce that tactic. This week, his campaign merely issued a lukewarm criticism that tried to score a political point in the same breath: "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."

Some of the frustration at McCain's rallies is from people who want the candidate to go harder after Obama. In Waukesha, when a voter begged McCain to take a more combative tone toward Obama, McCain instead talked about the financial crisis.

"Could I just say very quickly, yes, I'll do that," McCain said. "But I also, my friends, want to address the greatest financial challenge of our lifetime with a positive plan for action."

By MATT VOLZ – 33 minutes ago

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband has refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses are effectively sidetracking the probe until after Election Day.

Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person or by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. Palin's lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying Palin objected to the probe and would not appear to testify on Friday.

"The objections boil down to the fact that the Legislative Council investigation is no longer a legitimate investigation because it has been subjected to complete partisanship and does not operate with the authority that it had at the time of its initial authorization," McCain-Palin presidential campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said.

Sarah Palin initially welcomed the bipartisan investigation into accusations that she dismissed the state's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. "Hold me accountable," she said.

But she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate. The McCain campaign dispatched a legal team to Alaska including O'Callaghan, a former top U.S. terrorism prosecutor from New York to bolster Palin's local lawyer.

In the letter, Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein lists nine objections to the Legislature's investigation into Gov. Palin. Van Flein also argues the subpoena is "unduly burdensome" because Palin has travel plans that require him to be out of the state.

Earlier this week, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg said the governor, who was not subpoenaed, declined to participate in the investigation and said Palin administration employees who have been subpoenaed would not appear.

State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat, said the McCain campaign is doing all it can to prevent the Legislature from completing a report on whether the GOP's vice presidential nominee abused her power as governor.

Wielechowski and another member of the panel that summoned the witnesses, told The Associated Press that the witnesses can avoid testifying for months without penalty and that court action to force them to appear sooner is unlikely.

Republican Sen. Gene Therriault agreed with Wielechowski's analysis.

"If we had turned the rhetoric down and turned the pressure down to do some things we might have gotten voluntary cooperation," said Therriault, who opposed the subpoenas.

The McCain-Palin campaign said Thursday that Gov. Palin is cooperating with a separate Alaska State Personnel Board investigation into Troopergate. Palin initiated that investigation after she joined McCain's ticket. The three-member board is appointed by the governor.

"I can't say it enough, the governor is an open book on this matter," McCain spokeswoman Meg Stapleton said. "She is fully cooperating with the unbiased, legally appropriate and independent investigation of the State Personnel Board."

Palin fired Walt Monegan in July. It later emerged that Palin, her husband, Todd, and several high-level staffers had contacted Monegan about state trooper Mike Wooten. Palin maintains she fired Monegan over budget disagreements, not because he wouldn't dismiss her former brother-in-law.

Wooten had gone through a nasty divorce from Palin's sister before Palin became governor. While Monegan says no one from the administration ever told him directly to fire Wooten, he says their repeated contacts made it clear they wanted Wooten gone.

Alaska Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican foe of Palin, said Wednesday that the investigation is still on track.

"The original purpose of the investigation was to bring out the truth. Nothing has changed," she said.

Without the testimony, the retired prosecutor hired to head the investigation could still release a report in October as scheduled, based on the evidence he's already gathered. As of Thursday, Steven Branchflower had interviewed or deposed 17 of the 33 people he had identified as potential witnesses in the probe.

The Legislature does not have the leverage to compel any witness to testify before Nov. 4, said Wielechowski, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Wielechowski said he did not know whether Branchflower has enough material for a complete and fair report with so few witnesses. But he said delaying the probe would only politicize the matter more.

"It would be to appease the McCain camp," Wielechowski said. "They're doing everything they can to delay."

Ignoring a legislative subpoena is punishable by a fine up to $500 and up to six months in jail under Alaska law. But courts are reluctant to intervene in legislative matters and the full Legislature must be in session to bring contempt charges, Wielechowski said. The Legislature is not scheduled to convene until January.