Wednesday Morning

Oh to wake up early on Wednesday morning to know that we did the correct thing by being on the right side of history. To wake up to a "job well done". That our nation voted for hope and the future. That we all put the racism aside that has plagued us for all these many years. That we elected Barack Obama as the next president of this glorious nation.

This is the dream that so many are hoping to experience. But we will have to get past those old negative tapes in our collective soul and reach for the noble lever on the eternal election machine. To go with youth, intelligence, and vision over age-old political think, pessimism, and a narrowing view of the world.

If one would look closely at the polls these past four weeks one would have great hope that all of this will be accomplished on Election Day. All of the signs point to a sweeping Democratic victory. An opportunity to once and for all change a trajectory that has favored the rich and pampered over the tired middle and the struggling poor. No, nirvana will not have been reached and much will be left aside that should be corrected. But a certain step towards making our nation whole for all its people will be something that should be applauded.

Yet until that Wednesday morning arrives, all of this will be a dream. So much can go wrong in this last weekend of the long election cycle. A final McCain arrow might actually find its fertile target deep within a haunted American psyche. It has not happened yet but with so many paying full attention and contemplating their vote, none of us can be certain what the final outcome will be.

So the next ninety-six hours or so will be nervous ones for those who see so much to be won by an Obama victory. The anxiety for those on the Obama side is not rooted in a hatred for McCain (although much negativity is instilled by McCain's VP choice) but by the expectations that the Illinois Senator's election will go a long way to heal our nation and bring us on a new path of righteousness and healing. Obama might not be a perfect messenger and he might still lack all the experience we would want in the person who will be at the helm of the country, but his candidacy really is a "once in a lifetime" opportunity that cannot go unfulfilled. May Wednesday morning bring beams of sunshine from one coast to another and may we all, no matter what our background, join in and and sing, "We Have Overcome!".

A Baseball Interlude

In a way it is poetic justice that rain has fallen on baseball's parade. The same rain that has been dampening the two presidential candidates' jaunts through the Keystone state that just happens to be the site of that very same World Series.

Sometimes it is good for the soul to experience the actual changing of summer into autumn. The suspension of the baseball championships is being viewed universally as a disaster for a sport hungering for a large post season viewing audience. But the rain drops and dark weather that have taken over Philadelphia are giving the players a moment to pause before taking the final actions in a season so unexpected for the participants of the two teams.

When if ever, has a game been stopped in the middle of the sixth inning with the score tied and so much riding on the outcome? When if ever, has one game gone from one day to another day to another day with nothing changing? This break, though torture for the FOX network, gives those baseball purists who like things to last as long as possible, a unique opportunity to wonder what each team's manager's strategy will be in what is essence a three and a half inning contest for the ages.

In a similar vein, seeing pictures of Obama in the rain and of McCain having to cancel a rally in Quakertown, gives a bit more drama to their own championship bout. On Wednesday, the two will have gone on ahead of the Phillies and Rays, to sunny Florida, where the senses and emotions of the four seasons never hit.

A chill in the air, some wind dusting up around the crowd, and some meaningful rain showers are what everyone needs as the long election race winds down to a dwindling few days. One would hope that all of us would take one last moment to contemplate the meaning of this election and the stark positions of the two men running for the presidency. One would hope that Americans would look hard at the young lanky man from Illinois and the grizzled Air Force veteran from Arizona and then go and cast a vote that all of us knows is so important.

But this moment of solemnity will only last for twenty four hours. Obama will be on the networks Wednesday night followed by those precious innings that the two baseball teams will compete. The ads and talking heads will come back to try and convince us to vote for our most shallow concerns. The hope here is that the time off will produce a crisp clean battle in Citizens Park in Philly and an Election Day where millions of Americans will vote their dreams and hopes over fear and doom.

Sarah Ambitious

The roaring locomotive that is Sarah Palin is moving out front once again. The woman whose ambition knows no bounds is finding her voice on the campaign trail. The new energy and confidence exhibited by the Alaska governor is aimed at being a boon to her own future not as a help towards her tired old running mate.

The irony is that John McCain's staff did not closely look into Sarah Palin's meteoric political rise. If they did they would have realized that Palin uses everyone for her own advancement. She ratted out the head of the Alaska GOP for making a few political calls/emails while he was on government time. Instead of looking the other way, she cast aside her one time mentor.

Indeed, scores of ordinary folks in hometown Wasilla were pushed away by the eager young mayor. Instead of forging alliances and moving slowly, Mayor Palin took a me vs. them approach to local politics and government in the once sleepy Anchorage suburb.

When she took over the reins of the state, Palin quickly exhibited the same propensity for putting her own cronies in power and axing all that were deemed blocking her agenda and her path to greater glory. Now as the presidential campaign hits its waning days, Palin is sensing that McCain is a wounded duck that needs to be drowned.

The best example would be the recent Brian Williams/NBC interviews where without much prompting, Palin chides in with her own opinions. Perhaps three or four weeks ago, Palin would have played the dutiful VP candidate and only speak up when specifically addressed. This is no longer the case. More and more, Palin's extreme views on abortion, government's role, climate change and other areas are coming to the forefront as she boldly breaks from the chains that the McCain camp thought they had tied securely to her.

All of this is being done to push Sarah. She is not a dummy and is looking beyond what is almost definitely going to be a Republican drubbing. Palin hopes to become the nominal head of a smaller, leaner, and more religiously conservative national Republican Party. This might be good for her but it is also good for the rest of America which looks poised to elect Barack Obama. The make-up, the clothes, the unwavering right-wing views, are not selling with the majority of the nation and are helping to finish that McCain drowning.

Palin is a character right out of Shakespeare. She is good in many things and knows it. She would never hesitate to plunge that proverbial dagger into a modern day Caesar. But what she does not realize is that most of the nation (if the current polling can be depended upon) has moved away from the niche group that she looks to take control of. The thought here is that she remains genuine to her cause and not feign a new independent course that would fool millions of Americans in a future election and take over the leadership of the country. As John McCain and so many others have found out, ultimate power is what drives this woman and we as a freedom loving people do not need to experience such cunning ambition.

Food Stamps & Fried Chicken

The now infamous "food stamp" broadside originates from right here - western San Bernardino County. Located some forty miles due west of Los Angeles, the growing communities of Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, and Chino Hills are now the focal point of national attention over the overtly racist political depiction of Senator Obama inside a food stamp bill decorated with ribs, chicken, kool-aid, and watermelon.

The sad part of this episode is that the area is truly a melting pot of various ethnic groups and economic classes. The perpetrators of the guilty hit piece are the usually quiet and dignified Chaffey Community Republican Women. The group of leading civic women (and by association, elected Republican men) are now being seen as an insular, out of touch, and perhaps racist group. The action of a few of their members who put together the newsletter where the offending Obama depiction was found, casts aspersion on the rest of the area's population.

In so much as something like this has not happened before, one must go outside the women's group to find the real source of such hateful politics. And that is not hard to trace. The campaigns of Senator McCain and Governor Palin over the last three weeks have gone over the line in their portrayal of their Democratic rival.

It is one thing to point out inconsistent statements, perceived lack of experience, and a "liberal" voting record. Unfortunately, it is entirely not right to paint your opponent as "palling around with terrorists", "not sharing American values", and using other coded messages to stir up fear and anxiety among many voters.

Once the national campaign gets sidetracked with such negativity, it would not be hard to imagine local grassroots followers picking up the theme and putting their own take on the message. We would have to assume that the Chaffey women (and most likely other groups throughout the nation) got caught up in the anti-Obama hysteria as they put out their offensive material.

Much has been written about the growing anger being shown at McCain/Palin rallies. The Chaffey incident is a direct response to all of this. With only a bit more than two weeks left in the hard fought campaign, one wonders that if McCain did a 180% about face and called off all the negativity, whether it would be too late as the proverbial cat has already been let loose from its box.

Joe Six-Pack; Joe the Plumber; Joe ...

Desperate campaigns try desperate things. The writing was on the wall when before the end of the Democratic Convention in Denver, John McCain plucked the obscure Sarah Palin from far away Alaska. As reported here earlier, the McCain campaign had to know that they had to shake things up to have any chance at this election. Ducking and hiding the new VP candidate, McCain was able to pull into a virtual tie with Senator Obama for about two weeks. But reality struck when Palin finally began talking to the press and the world markets began to crash. The close race evaporated and Obama has now pulled out a lead of between seven and ten points.

Realizing that the Palin effect was going sour, the McCain camp began a series of bizarre efforts to turn the race around again. First, the Arizona Senator decided to "suspend" his campaign to help with the passage of the $700 billion bail-out plan. When he did not receive many kudos for that performance, the McCain leadership decided (and decided in a very public manner) that they were going to defeat Obama on his "weak personal character". Out came speeches and ads trying to connect Obama with former 1960's radical turned college educational professor, William Ayers. Sensing that this supposed relationship was not hurting Obama, McCain had Palin ratchet up the rhetoric at her rallies, decrying the Illinois Senator as a "terrorist" and "not one of us". Crowds picked up on this angry line of attack and soon some in the rabid crowds were calling for Obama's head.

With the third and final debate quickly coming upon them, someone in McCain's camp came across the video of Obama talking to a bald headed, tough looking white guy from Toledo. The single dad, Joe Wurzelbacher, complained to Obama that the Democrat's tax plan would punish him if he purchased the plumbing company he currently works for.

Sensing an opening, and a chance for McCain to finally show his economic bona fides, "Joe the Plumber" was born. McCain used Joe's moniker over twenty times in last night's Hofstra University debate. Joe was to be seen as the real life cousin of Sarah Palin's fictitious, Joe Six-Pack. It was not too hard a stretch to imagine Joe out with his beer drinking buddies at the local bowling alley, pouring disdain on the "effete" Obama and his "class warfare" tax policies. From a distance it would seem that the plucking of the once unknown Toledo Joe might in fact become a last minute brilliant move.

Oh, but just like Palin before him, no one in the McCain campaign decided to get down and dirty and check out Joe's background. As this blog is posted we are learning more and more about this American everyman. We now know that Joe goes to your house without a license. We know that he has worked for about six years as a plumber. We know that he is not a fan of Social Security or any government health care. We also know that according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the average plumber (licensed) made $47,350 in 2007. Judging by his house, where Joe basked in the light of one interview after another, we can tell that Joe is probably in the lower end of the middle class. With credit tight and things difficult, we also can question whether Joe is as close to making the business purchase that he so boldly stated that was so imminent, when he confronted Obama. We also do not know why Joe is a single dad and whether he has ever gotten that government assistance that he so readily dismisses.

It is now crunch time in the election. No more face to face meetings between the candidates. In fact, thousands of citizens in most states are already finished with their voting. The clock is ticking away. Everyone and everything that the McCains have thrown at Obama has failed. In one last desperate move, here comes Joe Wurzelbacher. You can bet that his background and all his opinions and his political ties are being investigated by the mainstream media and thousands of bloggers. If McCain's past choices are a clue, we could expect in a day or two, to no longer see Joe in the bright light of the TV studios as he disappears under that kitchen sink in an anonymous home on a quiet street in Toledo, Ohio.

State Of The Race

We have been spending most of our time dissecting the various issues, personalities, and major events of this epic presidential campaign. But as we move ever so closer to Election Day (literally three weeks plus two days from now), it would be prudent to take a snapshot of where the candidates are at this moment on the all important electoral college.

We would refer our readers to three excellent websites to get latest polling numbers and trends: 538.com, Real Clear Politics, and USA Today.com. These sites hold no particular allegiance to any of the candidates and digest information from a large number of sources. Numbers are crunched and projections are made.

538 places a percentage of winning certitude. Just four weeks ago, McCain was actually at a 52% chance of winning the presidency. Oh, but that was four weeks ago. How things have changed so quickly. As of today (Sunday, October 12), Obama is listed as the favorite at 94%. That leaves McCain at less than a one in ten chance of pulling out a victory. If you are rooting for the Republican, you should take heart that as mentioned above, things can change in a hurry. You also know that Wednesday night's debate will be the last major political event of the season. Unless McCain scores at a minimum, a three run homer, the game changer that everyone is looking for will not happen. On the other hand, there can always be the outside event (i.e. bin Laden's spooky election eve video four years ago) that neither candidate can control and can spice things up.

Over at USA Today, Obama is listed with 248 electoral votes to McCain's 135 (remember 270 is the magic victory number). An incredibly large swath of southern states are considered toss ups. These include: Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Based on past elections and projections by many other experts, this seems a bit of a stretch at this time. It would be hard to believe that McCain is in that much trouble in his base states.

Meanwhile at Real Clear, Obama is over the top with 277 votes to McCain's 158. Real Clear lists 103 votes as up for grabs. What makes this amazing, is that Real Clear gives the aforementioned southern group of states to McCain, and still has Obama winning the election. Even if McCain turned things around and pulled in Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Colorado, Obama would still become the next President.

Obviously, the once in a lifetime economic situation, has boosted Obama's campaign to the stratosphere. Hard pressed Americans are looking beyond the cultural issues that Republicans prefer elections to revolve around, and are truly seeking that proverbial change. McCain and his cohorts have tried desperately in the past ten days to turn the election back to a referendum on Obama, his supposed inexperience, his mysterious alliances, and his unorthodox background (read Ivy elitism, his middle name, and if you would, his skin color). As of this moment, almost none of these attacks seem to be sticking. Indeed, Obama's new (perhaps old as we have been watching it for over a year and a half) way of presenting the issues and trying to make elections more of a dialogue, has been working to an extent no one would have thought possible.

As we watch the clock wind down on these twenty-three crucial days, the question will be is the election Obama's to lose or McCain's to win. How each candidate answers will determine how they conduct themselves on the campaign trail, in that crucial debate, and in the advertisements that continually bombard us everyday.

Out Of Ideas

The action is coming quickly now. We used to talk about twenty-four hour news cycles. Now things seem to be changing on the hour. Last night's debate is so yesterday. A speech in the morning is superseded by an attack or response ad in the afternoon. A poll in one state garners attention until another one comes along just minutes later.

The world is spinning at incredible speed. While we sleep, foreign markets seem to be melting down. The Dow is down in the morning but up in early afternoon trading. A bomb blast in Iraq catches our attention until we hear about civilians being killed in Afghanistan.

With so much happening it would seem that the presidential campaigns would have more than enough on their hands to fill their advertisements, speeches, and advocates' appearances on cable talk shows. But for at least one campaign, John McCain's, the real life tragedies are no longer relevant.

Recently, a top McCain aide admitted that if the focus remained on the terrible economic news his candidate would lose the election. True to his words, the campaign with the able help of Sarah Palin, has gone on an irrelevant tangent, targeting Obama's inconsequential brief association with Chicago educator William Ayers. Using Ayers as a jumping point, Palin and to some degree McCain himself, have tried to paint the Illinois Senator as dangerous to America.

The amazing thing is that in past elections, such low- down techniques do get traction, causing doubt about the attacked candidate. But not this time. The always reliable Gallup Poll has shown consistent growth for Obama until this very day when the Democrat has now reached an 11% point lead over McCain.

Based on his debate performances and stump speeches, Senator McCain has shown that he is not in touch with the fast moving serious domestic and foreign issues that now confront us. Totally devoid of positive ideas, the Republican tag team is throwing out invectives that are designed to stir racial hatred. Thankfully, at least at this moment, the American public has shown itself to be too smart for such gutter warfare.

No one should tell Senator McCain to not stop fighting for this election. But do it on the issues, and if he loses, at least he will not have polarized such a large percentage of the population that it will seethe at any ideas brought up by a new President Obama. Our myriad problems are serious and an honest discussion is needed. Anything less demeans all of us and will cause more turmoil in the future.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

The strange thing about Sarah Palin is that she can be all things to all people. And she knows it. There are vast reserves of sexual energy that she uses to both emasculate and energize men. She uses the wife and mother card to reach busy and tired women who see her as the ultimate role model. She invokes a spirit of independence and of the mythical frontier by finding a way to cozy up to her town's bar keepers (without even having to drink herself) and by going out on hunting expeditions in a manner not seen since Teddy Roosevelt. And of course she embodies the spirit of the true believer in her faith based activities.

The real Sarah Palin showed up at the Republican National Convention and during the much watched Vice Presidential Debate. She is direct, charming, folksy, and ultimately quite convincing to both herself and to her audience. She relishes in zingers aimed at the heart of her opponents and has never not found a camera that she did not like.

If she was running for Miss America we could overlook her obvious narcissistic ways and dwell more on her perceived cuteness. But she is not running for Miss America and it is high time that all who have the opportunity to say so come straight with the facts.

Sarah Palin is the most dangerous major party candidate in our nation's history. Despite claiming to see Russia everyday (which she cannot from Anchorage or Juneau) she is completely unqualified for national executive experience. She has no working knowledge of the Constitution, no grasp on key events of the past, and sees the world in starkly (perhaps religiously) simple terms of black and white.

For all those who disdain both George Bush and Dick Cheney, they would be a much more welcome addition to Washington than the lady from Alaska. Wrapped up in a shell of ambition, self love, and a missionary zeal, the unknown governor would embark on policies that would not only destroy America but would almost definitely bring us war on many fronts. Her simplistic reactions towards Russia and Iran would move us perilously close to the use of nuclear weapons. Her mind, devoid of foreign policy concepts, is being filled in by the same neocons who persuaded Bush to attack Iraq instead of going right after Osama bin Laden.

America is living in tough times. How in God's name can someone lacking all intellectual pursuits and with relatively no knowledge of the complex interdependent global economy lead us out of the current recession? She can't and will not be able to.

"Drill, baby, drill" is more than a slogan with Sarah Palin. This tag line embodies her entire spirit. Oil and gas is and will always be our solution to a world that is short on these elements. Global warming be damned as we tie ourselves to a cross of black gold. By invoking the drill first slogan, Plain is really saying that we do not need the rest of the world to help us with any problems and we will continue the disastrous go it alone policies of the past eight years. And of course, just to appeal to those votes out there, well there are millions of men who get the hidden message.