McCain’s Michigan Pullout a Tricky Manuever

[cross posted at Michigan Youth Political Alliance]

Just several hours before the vice presidential debate, McCain withdraws his campaign troops from Michigan to redeploy them in other battleground states such as Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Clever decision? This campaign tactic could be so much more than what it appears to be at the surface.

Aside from the obvious move to minimize the media attention on his decision by announcing his decision when the media spotlight was clearly focused on the vice presidential debate, there is a lot more suspicious activity behind the scenes. On the surface, McCain’s pullout appears as a sign of weakness for his campaign. Prior to his pullout, McCain began losing traction in the polls, ceding to Obama approximately a 7 point lead. Michigan was a state that had swung blue in the past 4 presidential elections. Obama was picking up support because of his stronger economic focus and more concrete economic policy proposals in comparison with McCain–a huge issues to a state dominated by economic hardship and seeking to escape it.

In his national and state campaign, McCain was inconsistent with his economic positions: declaring the fundamentals of the economy to be sound in one moment then halting his campaign to focus on the bailout crisis in the next. Obama capitalized on this inconsistency to weaken the legitimacy of McCain’s campaign platform. Even during the vice presidential debate, Palin found such inconsistency to be hard to defend, and Biden hit this point home.

However, Michigan was not lost for McCain. In the previous two elections, Michigan could have swayed to either side. Michigan is home to the historical Reagan Democrats, a voter bloc that could easily be captured by McCain. Michigan’s Republican Party is one of the less ideologically extreme conservative factions in the nation, attracting much support from a wide array of people. Obama’s campaign was strong among the youth in Michigan and people were unsatisfied by McCain’s economic solutions, but Michigan was still a battleground state. It could be swayed, perhaps, with more powerful backing from Mitt Romney and other political figures Michigan voters could identify themselves with. Michigan was still on the edge.

The most visible effects of this consists of two parts–McCain is turning away from a focus on the economy, and Michigan Republicans are going to be significantly hindered in their own fight for seats at the state Capitol. McCain’s withdrawal is a sign of dropping attention on Michigan’s sole issue, the economy, and that might even benefit McCain, considering his weak platform on the issue. However, for the most part, McCain is revealing his cowardice in trying to avoid the elephant in the room (as if voters can’t see it). If he can’t deal with economic issues (voter’s number one issue for this election), he won’t be able to win voters back with foreign policy experience, a reform agenda, or his other pluses.

Michigan GOP is going to face an uphill battle in upcoming races–especially the most critical ones for “Joe Knollenberg’s 9th District seat in Oakland County and Tim Walberg’s 7th District seat stretching from western Washtenaw County to Battle Creek.” Plenty of GOP voters could stay home because McCain’s move hurts party mobilization and support. And since turnout is key for the GOP to win the seats on those two Congressional races, McCain’s move will directly hinder party strength on the Capitol.

Now, let’s talk about the juicy material: what is going on McCain’s head? What is his real strategy? Democrats are absolutely justified in being skeptical about his move–considering it a feint to weaken Obama’s campaign in Michigan, a key swing state for this year. McCain is definitely trying a sneaky tactic. According to the Detroit News:

The Obama campaign source expressed surprise that McCain, who had been airing a massive TV ad campaign in Michigan, abruptly decided to pull back. But the source noted that the Republican National Committee was still airing roughly $1 million worth of ads in Michigan markets, and that the National Rifle Association and other independent groups are continuing to attack Obama with TV and mailed advertising.

There is a strong possibility that McCain will return to Michigan in the few days before the general election and pummel Michigan hard with money, advertisements, events, etc. when the Obama campaign least expects him to. Such a tactic could barely shift the polls in his favor, winning him Michigan’s 17 electoral votes. Thus, I highly doubt McCain has completely pulled out of Michigan. If he still has so much money here, it is unlikely his withdrawal of his campaign staff is a sign of weakness. By appearing weak in Michigan, however, McCain could and probably will pull off an “October surprise” to pick up its votes.

[cross posted at Michigan Youth Political Alliance]

Barack Obama, President

For months I have been mulling a Bob Barr endorsement. But after some consideration, I will reluctantly support Barack Obama.

In the first months of the primaries, I supported libertarian Ron Paul, since I am a libertarian. If Ron Paul would have won the Republican nomination, I am confident he would win in a landslide. But once it was inevitable that Paul had lost the nomination after loses in Iowa and New Hampshire he did fairly well in Nevada and won in Louisiana - people will tell you McCain won it, but Paul did - I endorsed Bill Richardson.

Shortly after that Richardson dropped out, and I endorsed the last good candidate left in the race, Hillary Clinton. I felt Hillary had the executive experience, and that Senator Obama’s only executive experience was on the board of Chicago’s Annenberg challenge, which is not presidential.

Obama was a state Senator, only active in the US Senate for 146 days, whoever supported him in the primaries (nearly 18 million voters) must have been high on something! But Hillary Clinton (a little over 18 million votes) had the experience to be president. But once Joe Biden was picked, I knew Barack Obama was walking away from just saying “change” and “hope” to focusing on the issues like Hillary Clinton.

Bob Barr seems like a good candidate with seven percent of responders in today’s Rasmussen tracking poll choosing someone besides Obama or McCain. But he still seems like a waste of a vote.

And so I reluctantly support Senator Barack Obama for president.

Not Change

McCain is not change, and neither is his wing man, Pallin. Obama is the change candidate, he is the candidate that used the change platform. Since the Republican convention it seems the Same Old Party has been trying to adopt change as it’s new name, with little challenge from Obama (swift boats anyone?). However Barack Obama is now visibly hitting back in an email he sent to supporters this afternoon:

[McCain's] new ad uses what news organizations are calling “naked lies” to reinvent two politicians whose records embody the same culture of corruption and far-right policies we’ve seen from the Bush administration.

The biggest whopper in the ad (that’s still being repeated day after day by McCain and Palin on the campaign trail) is that Governor Palin stopped the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” — in fact, she supported it, and even hired a lobbyist in Washington to get more pork-barrel projects like it.

If the McCain-Palin campaign wants to have a debate about who is prepared to bring the change we need, we’re more than ready.

More than this not being change, the McCain story has been floundering on their experience equals judgment claims too. It seems they can’t use judgment to come up with their own campaign motto’s (the best judgment would be actually joining the progressive platform, not just using it’s campaign language).

On the Issues: Why Obama Was Right and John McCain Was Wrong on the Surge

In January of 2007 John McCain wrote an editorial about the need for a surge of American troops in Iraq. He wrote, “During my visit to Iraq last month, it was clear that security is the precondition for political progress and economic development.” He went on to say, “Until the government and its coalition allies can protect the population, the Iraqi people will increasingly turn to extr-governmental forces, especially Sunni and Shiite militias, for protection. Only when the government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force will its authority have meaning, and only when its authority has meaning can political activity have the results we seek.” It has been more than a year since that surge and in a safer more secure Iraq we are still seeing a government not up to the challenge.

At the same time that John McCain was moving closer to President Bush on the war in Iraq Barack Obama was laying out the case why the surge wouldn’t work. In his floor statement he said this, “The fact is that we have tried this road before. In the end, no amount of American forces can solve the political differences that lie at the heart of somebody else’s civil war.”

So who was right and who was wrong? The GAO who conducted a report on the surge in September that hasn’t much changed said that Iraq had “failed to meet all but nine of the security goals Congress had set as part of a list of 18 benchmarks of progress.” Two of these goals had been the elimination of havens for militia forces and the deployment of three Iraqi military brigades that would be there to assist the U.S. in the security plan that was created for Baghdad. Two other benchmarks that had been described as one being economic and the other political the GAO rated as partially met. Speaking of political goals this same report said that only one of the eight goals in that arena had been met, and even today the Iraqi Parliament has missed deadline after deadline to set a date for new national elections that are pass due.

So if the true meaning our purpose of the surge in Iraq was just to secure the nation than John McCain is right. However he is being less than honest when he suggests that to be so. His own comments saying, “During my visit to Iraq last month, it was clear that security is the precondition for political progress and economic development,” prove this to be the case.

Tha-Kid JK

tha-kid@revkitchen.com

Stop acting like we won! And vote the right way.

I was not pleased with the Democratic convention last week, when all the big Democrats were acting like we won this election and there is no need to attack John McCain’s negative personal record. I could tell you, during next weeks Republican national convention, the Republicans won’t be talking about how  Barack Obama is a great patriotic American, and how he is only wrong on the issues! We have to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and attack McCain for running a campaign based on his POW record. We need to swift boat him!

I was recently talking to a progressive, and asked him who he is voting for, and he said ‘McCain’.  I asked why, and he said ‘ Well, Obama will win New York anyways, so lets give the underdog some respect’. The Obama camp must talk to these crazy voters!!!!

The Argument for The Argument for Bob Barr

With all the media coverage of Obama and McCain, it can be easy to forget there are other candidates for president this year. Perennial Democratic candidate saboteur Ralph Nader comes to mind, but this year the republicans may have to deal with their own Nader. Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president, has been stealing away McCain’s supporters.

A recent Zogby poll says that 55% of voters think Barr should be included in the presidential debates. The Obama campaign needs to help make this a reality. Not only would it make Obama look good if he publicly works to get Barr into the debates, it would help Obama gain more ground against McCain as McCain supporters switch to Barr. And of course, if McCain fought against letting Barr into the debates, it would make him look terrible. Regardless of prefer you like Barr’s message or Obama’s, you want Barr in the debates. Read more

McCain Attacks Obama for not Picking Clinton

I shouldn’t be surprise that the straight talk express has jumped the tracks again… but for some reason I am. John McCain has decided to stop talking about the issues and bring up the Obama VP issue. That’s fine if he wants to critique Joe Biden’s stance on issues, but he’s attacking the VP choice of a person who isn’t even selected as the VP:

Republican John McCain launched a new ad Sunday claiming rival Barack Obama passed over Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate for “speaking the truth” about his liabilities.

The ad, called “Passed Over,” features a clip of Clinton and repeats criticisms the New York senator made during the Democratic primaries over Obama’s alleged lack of specifics on issues, negative campaign tactics and his relationship with Antoin Rezko, a former Obama fundraiser convicted in June on corruption charges.

I’m sure the campaign made two ads in preparation for his announcement. One of them is the one we’re talking about right now. The other would be seeking to disenfranchise the Democratic yet Hillary haters while at the same time mobilizing the anti-Hillary Repulblicans.

Is this what American politics has come to, when one party won’t run on it’s own failing platform, but instead chooses to divide another party?

And finally I’d like to say to all the Hillary Clinton supporters, please do vote for Obama, he is way better than McCain who wants to ban pretty much everything (abortion, privacy, safe food, good veterans care and more) except for guns. And if you can’t bring yourself to vote for someone who supports what you believe in, please at least vote for someone who supports what both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stand for.

Remember, ThinkYouth will be covering the 2008 Democratic National Convention live from Denver next week.

An Open Letter to My Fellow Clinton Backers on Biden…Get Over It

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Dear Fellow Clinton Supporters;

It is official Senator Barack Obama has picked Senator Joseph Biden to be the Vice Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party of the United States of America. As this choice made news other things came to light about the process for vetting and selecting the number 2 spot of our party and with respect to Hillary and Bill Clinton. Let me be the first to say that Senator Obama and the Obama campaign seriously dropped the ball on this issue and big time.

For weeks after Hillary Clinton left the primary and threw her support behind Obama for President the candidate himself promised that she was well qualified to be on “anyone’s” shortlist. Sadly that anyone didn’t include him. Leaks continue to come out that his campaign never seriously vetted Hillary Clinton and never really considered her as the future Vice President despite his promises she would. To say the least it pisses me off. However on the selection of Joe Biden it was a great choice.

The story of a regular Joe is no one other than Joe Biden. The Senior Senator from Delaware who is the poorest member of the United States Senate, doesn’t own a home in Washington but instead commutes everyday back to his only home in Delaware will reach those in the lunch-bucket towns of PA, IN, and OH. However more importantly this is a pick that has worked hard on a large number of the issues that we supported Hillary Clinton on.

Violence Against Women’s Act- This was and still is one of the most powerful pieces of legislation every passed by Congress to combat domestic violence. Not only did he support it but he wrote it back in 1994 and worked hard with then- President Clinton to pass it. The VAWA has it is called contains a broad list of measures to fight a rapid rise in domestic violence and gives billions of dollars in federal funds to address the gender based crimes. However many will remember in 2000 the Supreme Court threw out that gender based section as unconstitutional but that didn’t stall Biden. He worked with Congress who at the time was swaying back and forth between Democratic and Republican control to reauthorize the VAWA. More to his credit when people started to criticize the problems at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, it was Biden who worked with technology companies to find the problems and donate their own equipment and expert experience in fixing it.

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993-Again working with President Clinton to fulfill a campaign promise, Joe Biden joined a group of Senators as strong advocates for its passage in 1993. This is a strong bill that provides for 12 weeks of leave for parents after the birth of a child, caring for a sick child or parent, or being too ill to perform the job.

These two major acts of congress are just a drop in the bucket on the others that aligned our dream President with the hopefully next Vice President. It is okay to be angry and disappointed at the failure of what a growing number of Americans see as an arrogant Obama campaign. However to seek to sink this ship and turn the keys to the White House over to John McCain borders on treason.

We know that if Obama is elected President he will work to bring our troops home and end the war in Iraq while winning the war in Afghanistan. We know that if Obama is elected President he will fight for real middle class tax cuts, higher taxes and revoked financial assistances to the oil companies. We know that if Obama is elected President he will bring real reform to an urban education community that has been under attack by No Child Left Behind that came with all new standards but forgot all the money.

These are real issues that affect real people and real lives. No one is above these issues, yes no one, not even Hillary Clinton. It is time to realize she lost and get over it.

Tha-Kid JK

tha-kid@revkitchen.com

Conservatives Stoop To New Lows With Obamageddon

The celebrity ads where bad enough, now Republicans want to claim Barack Obama is the Antichrist. In an email from the conservative Townhall.com they reinforce the hidden message in McCain’s “Messiah” ad:

Big media is swooning over him like love-sick teenagers. People are acting as if he’s the greatest celebrity on Earth or even some sort of cult leader — the “Obamamessiah.”

The Carpetbagger Report and other progressive blogs talked about this connection a week ago:

The McCain campaign may be playing on evangelical fears of, believe it or not, the Antichrist. The argument made the rounds a few days ago, and was elevated to a national issue by Time’s Amy Sullivan yesterday, who noted that the ad’s suggestion of Obama as the Antichrist might actually make the Willie Horton ads “seem benign” by comparison.

Now I don’t know which is worse, the juvenile insults or that conservatives would actively bend our scriptures to deceive the public about a very important subject. Revelation, the book of the Bible that talks about Armageddon warns against adding and taking from this message. If they really believe that Obama is the Antichrist they need to come out and say it, otherwise evangelicals need to stop playing games with religion.

But why would conservatives even go down this path? It’s because McCain is not a presidential candidate that advertises his religion on the billboards. So to compensate they must throw lies out, accusing him of being a Muslim, the Antichrist, et cetera, to make McCain seem more Christan.

This shows that the conservative evangelicals establishment puts their politics (low taxes, “fortress America,” discrimination…) over their faith.

The Energy Plan America Really Needs

First it was FISA, now Barack Obama appears to have caved and wants offshore oil drilling, but thankfully this time he appears ready to do some negotiation:

Senator Barack Obama said on Saturday that he would reluctantly consider accepting some new offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in exchange for stripping oil companies of tax breaks and extending several tax credits to spur the search for alternative fuels.

This is not enough to reduce oil prices, and the only thing it increases is risk to the environment (oil spills and global warming). I’d be willing to support this plan if it had more strings attached:

1. Invest heavily in bus rapid transit along highways and other commuter thoroughfares. Bus rapid transit is like a subway system without the trains, and instead of a stop every block, routes have only select stop areas. The fare is also payed at the station, speeding bus boarding.
2. Invest in mass transit systems like subways and light rail which often times spurs walkable transit oriented development that encourages a car free lifestyle.
3. Continue to expand congestion pricing, which uses free market ideas to charge road users increasing amounts of money to use a road, which encourages people to drive less, use mass transit, or drive at less congested times (when prices are lower, due to lower demand).
4. The money for this would come from the National Highway Trust Fund. While it’s tempting to spend all the money saved from leaving Iraq on domestic programs, that money is money America doesn’t have to spend.
5. If oil from the strategic oil reserve is released it must be tied to reducing the speed limit on national roads. This reserve should only be used for emergencies, like when America invades Iran and the Middle East gets together and says no more oil for the Americans.

But McCain’s energy plan is even worst, with his advocating for drilling in ANWR and his gas tax holiday scam. But my point is to challenge the Democrats to create true energy reform, not just band aids and funding for futuristic concepts, but use technologies that are already available.

Election 2008: Ralph Nader in Athens, Georgia

On July 25th, 2008, my father, my thirteen-year-old brother, and I went to go see Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and 2008 Independent Presidential candidate, speak at “Master’s Hall” on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. I had been incredibly excited to see that Nader was coming to Georgia on his “Southern Tour”, and no more than forty miles away from my town, no less! My father, being the good open-minded fellow that he is, agreeably drove myself and my uninterested brother there and paid the $10 each to get in. We each received a free Nader/Gonzalez ‘08 pin for this payment. There was a long table set up just outside the hall for this practice of collecting money, and for collecting signatures on a petition to get Ralph Nader on the ballot in Georgia. The number of signatures necessary to get Nader, or any Independent candidate, on the ballot in Georgia is inane: 42,489 signatures by July 8th. Such ballot access laws are implemented so that independent candidates cannot make a significant challenge to the two major parties in power (who are the ones that make the laws, of course).

The event was at 5:30 in the afternoon; we three were situated in our seats by 5:00, and we watched as the hall filled up with likely about two hundred people. Since Ralph Nader had held an event in Columbia, South Carolina, at 12 o’clock that afternoon, and since he had run into some bad traffic on the way to Athens, he did not arrive at the hall until about 6 o’clock that evening.

After giving a brief press conference upstairs, Nader arrived, amidst a burst of applause. He walked down the aisle, right next to where I was sitting (close enough that I could have touched him, if I lacked judgement and prudence), towards the podium. Nader sat down and briefly rested from his busy schedule while a young African American campaign volunteer, a “concerned citizen”, gave an earnest introductory speech. In this speech, the young man affirmed how much he cared about the country and the issues at hand, and how important it is for everyone to care and be civically involved. And then he said, “And now I am proud to present a more-than-worthy 2008 presidential candidate, Mr. Ralph Nader.” The crowd erupted into applause. This was the moment that we had all been waiting for. We three were not disappointed.
Read more

Voting Race: How the Republicans can or will beat Obama.

In the past few weeks I have seen lifelong Democrats reluctant to vote for Barack Obama. In my neighborhood (which is Democratic by a large margin) most people supported Hillary Clinton (as I did). I have seen cars parked who used to have Hillary stickers now have McCain stickers. Why? I asked some people about it and they think Obama would be the presidential version of the former NYC African American mayor David Dinkins, who was not popular even among the black community.

Polls show Barack Obama winning by a razor thin margin. There is always the possibility that people are donating money and telling pollsters that they will vote for Obama to sound politically correct, and by the election they will vote for McCain or not vote at all.

I asked that question to Professor KC Johnson (BA and PhD. from Harvard University, MA from University of Chicago) who a few weeks ago predicted Obama would win in a landslide with well over 300 electoral votes.

Read more

Obama Campaign: Ready to fight

Today the Washington Post reported that Barack Obama’s campaign for president will open 20 new offices in the state of Virginia.  Some of these offices are located in areas where he didn’t do well in the Virginia Primary, and where Senator McCain is favored greatly.  The Obama campaign is putting resources into areas where the pundits would have you believe he doesn’t stand a chance.  This campaign, however, is not going to concede any state without a fight. Read more

Obama’s FISA Reversal and Imminent Vote

Well, Obama has finally made a proper statement about his disgraceful flip-flop on the FISA Ammendments Act. Mr. Charisma now supports the bill (though with only about with as much enthusiasm as I support him) after saying for the last few months that he would filibuster it as long as it had immunity for the telecom industry (which it does). More over at The Swamp.

As it stands, the bill is the results of apathetically lackluster “compromising” and “negotiations” between Democrats and Republicans in Congress which gave the Republicans more than they could have ever hoped for if there had been a competent negotiator on the Democrats’ side. The bill grants retroactive immunity to the telecom industry for helping the NSA with their warrentless wiretapping, meaning that we may never know for sure the extent of the spying (unless you listen to this man). And, all of this is happening before the results of a report by the Inspector General on the warrentless wiretap program.

To learn more about the FISA bill, check out this video at Four Hour Work Week. It is well worth watching, and makes includes a great argument that even though you may not be doing anything wrong, you still do not want the government spying on just anybody without a warrent. Daniel Ellsberg says that warrentless wiretapping means that government officials and activists can be spied on by the ruling party in an effort to stop plans that may be against what the ruling party wishes (Watergate anyone?).

Obama’s defense of his flip-flop is laughable. For one thing, he says that he will fight to remove immunity from the bill, but then admits that even if immunity is not removed, he is still voting yes on the bill. What kind of commitment is that? He continues on by saying all the reasons that the bill is “imperfect” (see: dangerously unconstitutional), but then brushes it all aside in favor of the “well counter-terrorism is important” defense. Clearly just playing towards the center during an election instead of sticking to his convictions. Obama claims that once he is in office he will have the Attorney General review survelence programs like this one, but not only is he making the assumption that he will win in November, but anybody who believes him is forgetting that power corrupts, and once in office he will have no reason to have that review. McCain is going to vote for the bill, so all Obama is doing by voting for it as well is playing politics for the election, and it is not right. The American people deserve better from a possible commander-in-chief. At least McCain seems to believe in his vote (however wrong it may be).

And please, call your senators. The vote is tomorrow. The EFF has a great script to read to them.

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