According to the New York Times’ electoral map, Colorado is now leaning towards Obama and Missouri and Indiana could follow suit. It is starting to look like a landslide victory for Obama and I can’t remember the last time a Democrat had a landslide victory for President. I am starting to think Obama will carry some southern states as I expect an unprecedented number of African-American voters.
This last debate was definitely the most entertaining. I was concerned at the beginning as McCain started off on the offensive with a smile while Obama looked annoyed the whole time. But Obama was able to come back and I think in the end carried the debate.
As Patrick Healy of the New York Times reports, it seems that Obama has mastered “staying cool and irritating your opponent.”
From Bill Clinton to John McCain, Senator Barack Obama has proved adept at driving very smart politicians out of their comfort zone, leading them to make comments or embrace tactics that end up backfiring.
Now we are in the home stretch and as this map shows, it comes down to six states, Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. The New York Times is projecting Obama to win the election because it just moved Virginia into the leaning on Obama category. But anything can happen which makes this election so entertaining. A lot more fun than baseball or football. 
Op-Ed Columnist
The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 12, 2008
The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.
I realized today that I am voting less for Barack Hussein Obama because of specifics about him but more because of ideals. And one of those ideals is that negative campaigning, especially racist, deceitful, fear ridden campaigning should never be rewarded and must be defeated.
Another interesting thing to consider is that if Obama does get elected we could say that racism against African-Americans is decreasing. However regardless of the outcome we sadly must admit that racism against Muslims in general and Arabs in particular is increasing.
I am increasingly concerned that Barack Obama will not become the next President of the United States because of the latent racism that still exists and festers in this country.
At a Florida rally, Palin called Obama a friend of terrorists and someone in the audience shouted out “Kill him!” as reported by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. This is now being investigated by the FBI because it is illegal to threaten a presidential candidate. Milbank is now saying the shout may have been in reference to Ayers. Apparently people also yelled out “Treason!”
In this video, not what I would call unbiased journalism, you hear people say Barack Obama is a terrorist because of his name. One man claims that Barack Obama was with Islamic terrorists when he was a child.
In Britain, a man was shot three times for wearing an Obama t-shirt. In Colorado, three men were arrested for allegedly planning to kill Obama during his acceptance speech. This is worrisome to say the least.
This debate was a bit less entertaining than the past two and I was kind of bored at the beginning. But I thought Obama did much better and clearly won this debate.
When McCain talks about domestic and economic policy he looks like a fish out of water. But when he talks about foreign policy you can see his eyes light up. Obama on the other hand looks comfortable talking about both foreign and domestic policy and seems quite bright.
These are some of my thoughts from the debate.
Body Language
Unlike the first debate, this time McCain was a bit more civil and would occasionally glance at Obama. And while he is not showing utter disdain for him like he did with Romney I get the sense he really does not like Obama. A CNN analyst said that it is clear that McCain “despises” Obama.
Obama on the other hand seemed pretty loose and confident. And what was interesting was after the debate was over I saw Obama pose for a few photos with members of the audience but I never saw that happen with McCain. Also Obama does a lot of that friendly finger pointing, kind of like the Palin wink.
Health Care
Based on my experience as a self-employed person who has had to purchase his own health care insurance for his family I think McCain’s health care proposal is horrible. Not allowing employers to deduct health care benefits would result in more employers not providing health care. This is effectively a tax raise and would mean more uninsured people. McCain says he will offset this with a $5,000 tax credit. But health care plans cost over $10,000 per family. McCain would counter that by saying the free market will lower costs but the current free market punishes individuals and give better rates to employers and other large groups. It’s just a terrible idea.
And I’m glad Obama pointed out the folly in getting health care from another state whose laws could be completely different. Also I applaud Obama for seeking to enact laws that will prevent health insurers from denying health care to people with pre-existing conditions (which includes pregnancy).
I honestly think McCain’s plan is just a handout to the insurance companies who stand to profit more as more individuals, without the leverage of being part of a group, have to purchase health care insurance at high prices. I am looking forward to purchasing good health care from the government at a reasonable rate.
Iraq
Obama this time more forcefully pointed out the questionable judgement of McCain and others for going into Iraq, saying it would be a quick war, saying we would be greeted as victors, saying it would not cost much. I noticed McCain really could not say much to defend himself on that point, he just keeps talking about the surge.
Pakistan
McCain tried to paint Obama as this naive guy who declares war on other nations, like Pakistan. Obama had an excellent counter, pointing out when McCain said “Bomb bomb bomb Iran” and something similar about North Korea. Not sure why McCain would be so belligerent towards the people of North Korea and still sign a letter promoting North Korean human rights.
Negative Campaigning
I expected there would be at least some comments about Obama being characterized by Palin as “friends of terrorists” and McCain being linked to the Keating Five scandal. I think it was probably smart of them to avoid it during the debate but I am concerned about how negative this campaign will go. I am especially concerned about comments Palin made such as “This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America.” That is a comment with racist overtones and I am concerned about it not only being condoned but being effective, like the Willie Horton ads that got the first George Bush elected.
Overall it looks like the next President will be Barack Obama but I will believe it when I see it. I am still amazed at the thought that an African-American could become the President of the United States. I never though it would happen in my lifetime yet here we are on the verge.
This debate was quite entertaining. I enjoyed the pace and I thought the moderator did a great job.
I was hoping Governor Sarah Palin would do well because I thought the teasing of Palin had reached a point of mean-spiritedness. I enjoyed the SNL skit but I didn’t think it was fair that Governor Palin had become a national joke. I was also expecting Governor Palin would do well because she has a history of doing well in debates and I think people underestimate how intelligent she is.
So I was happy to see Governor Palin do well. She showed command of foreign and domestic policy and made good points about Obama’s record. To be fair, this debate was a good environment for her. She was able to control what she would talk about and was able to use her charisma and her camera presence.
Senator Biden though was the one who actually impressed me more. I thought his attacks on Senator McCain were pointed, clear and the ones I wish Senator Obama had made. I appreciated his emotion when he talked about being a single parent, I didn’t even know he had been one. His expertise on domestic and foreign policy was quite evident.
Overall I am not sure if this debate helped either ticket but at least it wasn’t a disaster as some expected for the Republicans.
Watching tonight’s debate I felt frustrated with how Senator Barack Obama performed. I thought he was on the defensive and that surprised me considering that you would think McCain would be. As George Will said, it’s incredible considering McCain is associated with “an unpopular president, an unpopular war, and a failing economy.”
First Senator McCain starts off by talking about earmarks, how they are $18 billion, that Senator Obama had requested $900 million in earmarks or something like that, etc. Senator Obama tried to defend himself but I would have preferred hearing was something like what George Will said, “$18 billion is a rounding error in the budget.” Senator Obama should have repeatedly pointed out that Senator McCain was the one who said the economy was sound and if his best solution for the economy is to stop earmarks, then that’s pretty pathetic.
Senator McCain then talked about taxes, how he’d lower them for businesses while Obama would raise them. He talked as though it’s just nonsensical to not be doing it, as though Obama was a fool. Obama just talked about cutting taxes for those making less than $250,000. Why didn’t he point out that President Bill Clinton raised taxes, was criticized for it, and the country enjoyed the largest economic expansion in its history? George Bush lowered taxes and now we’re in the worst economic mess ever. Obviously a lot more to it than that but what I wanted to see was Obama criticizing Senator McCain’s lack of economic expertise and criticizing him for holding onto the failed idea of lowering taxes for the rich.
Senator McCain then hammered Senator Obama on not admitting the surge was a success and the right thing to do. Senator McCain kept bringing up a list of foreign policy decisions that he was right about. Why didn’t Senator Obama hammer him more on the fact he agreed to a war whose grounds for entering it were completely false? Why not hammer him on the fact that there was no clear mission? Was it to get Hussein? If so why are we still there? Was it to install a democratic government? If so we’re not doing a good job. This one is probably harder to do because Senator Obama probably doesn’t want to send a possibly unpatriotic message that we’re losing.
Finally it was interesting to see that Senator McCain chose not to look at Senator Obama. I am not sure if this looked arrogant but I thought it worked well, made Senator Obama appear like he was trying to gain Senator McCain’s favor by looking at him and saying “You’re right.” Apparently the McCain campaign picked up on this.
Overall I was disappointed that Senator Obama was so defensive. All the pundits I heard thought Senator Obama did well or even won and the general public seems divided so in the end it may be inconsequential.
I think Senator Obama needs to keep hammering Senator McCain on his weakness on economic policy. And I wish he’d become pro-life.
All over the internet everyone is talking about Karl Rove, in a Fox News interview, saying that McCain has gone too far in his attack ads.
McCain has gone in some of his ads — similarly gone one step too far and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test.
Karl Rove says McCain, Obama have gone too far
Some of my Republican friends might point out that much of the press is highlighting Rove’s comments about McCain and are not pointing out that he made similar comments about Obama. But considering the source of the comment, Karl Rove, the Republican pioneer of the perfect sleaze campaign, and that the interview was on Fox News, it’s amazing that this was even aired.
From my view point I think the criticisms leveled at McCain are fair. First, McCain has in the past always tried to portray himself as the honorable one who would never do negative campaigning. But his current campaign is incredibly negative which sends the message that McCain will do and say whatever is necessary to win. Recently I saw an ad here in California that made all sorts of statements about Obama including the bald faced lie that Obama would raise taxes on the middle class. This is not true, Obama is actually going to lower them while McCain has no tax plan except to keep tax cuts for the wealthy. McCain’s campaign is not positive, it is not about building, it is about fear.
I like McCain’s choice of Palin much more than Obama’s choice of Biden. This New York Times article, McCain Chooses Palin as Running Mate, gives a good summary.
While Obama’s choice of Biden felt like he was giving in to people complaining about lack of experience, foreign issues expertise, etc., McCain’s choice of Palin is more risky. Palin is a woman, she’s considered somewhat of a “maverick” in her party, she’s from Alaska, no one has ever heard of her, she’s young and relatively inexperienced, etc.
In the end I respect McCain for making this choice. Now I wish more than ever that Obama had chosen Hilary Clinton. It says something that McCain chose to make the risky choice and Obama chose to make the safe choice. It may say something about who is really for change.
This move could work out well for McCain because the conservative Christians are very happy about it and maybe some women, who are not pro-choice, will move towards Palin.
“They’re beyond ecstatic,” said Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition. “This is a home run. She is a reformer governor who is solidly pro-life and a person of deep Christian faith. And she is really one of the bright shining new stars in the Republican firmament.”
I don’t know much about Biden but my first impression is not favorable. He seems very liberal, loose with his mouth, an insider who likes to say he is not. He is handsome though.
I respect Palin because she doesn’t just say she is pro-life, she didn’t abort her fifth baby when she knew he had Down syndrome. She also rooted out corruption in her government and attacked many Republicans while doing that.
My summary is that though I think Obama > McCain, I think Palin >> Biden.
Senator Obama’s FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) shift is getting quite a bit of news. Liberals feel betrayed. Personally I would have preferred Obama vote against the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and it is great to see Ron Paul and his supporters rally against it.
A group of netroots bloggers and Ron Paul supporters joined together to form a bipartisan political action committee, Accountability Now, in order to raise money during a one day money bomb, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, will be used to fund advertisements against Democratic and Republican lawmakers who supported the retroactive immunity of the telecoms.
Personally I am more disheartened by the fact that John McCain chose not to vote at all. He seems to have a disturbing trend of doing this on politically risky issues and then attacking his opponents on their voting records on such issues. For example John McCain has chosen not to vote on many environmental issues and then he tries to portray himself as the Green Republican.
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