Back Stabbing Has Already Begun in Hillary's Campaign

Hillary Clinton has not yet formally announced her run for the 2016 Democrat presidential nomination, yet maneuvering and backstabbing has already begum among those who would seek to guide her campaign.  As seems to be the case all to often within Democrat ranks, some individuals put their personal advancement over the larger cause of running a winning campaign and beating the Republicans.  One would think that Democrats would have learned by now and one would also hope that Hillary Clinton would quash such behavior.  Mother Jones looks at the shameless back stabbing.  Here are highlights:

We've seen this movie before, and it doesn't end well.

On Friday, ABC News published a story about a email listserv maintained by two Democratic operatives: Robby Mook, a former Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton campaign aide, and Marlon Marshall, an Obama White House staffer . . . . . The story's title—"EXCLUSIVE: Read the Secret Emails of the Men Who May Run Hillary Clinton's Campaign"—promised a juicy expose. In reality, the substance of what members posted on this 150-member "secret" listserv, dubbed the "Mook Mafia," was far from explosive. The phrases "smite Republicans mafia-style" and "punish those voters" read badly out of context. But then, who hasn't dashed off a snarky email to friends that you wished you could take back and touch up a little?

The real news isn't that Mook and Marshall had a listserv for fellow Democratic operatives. It's that someone on the listserv leaked its contents in an effort to hurt Mook's chances of becoming the manager of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. In other words, the Clinton '16 effort has yet to officially launch and already the backstabbing and infighting has begun.

It's shades of Hillary '08 all over again.

Internal battles notoriously plagued Clinton's first presidential run. A Washington Post story in March 2008 described the "combustible environment within the Clinton campaign, an operation where internal strife and warring camps have undercut a candidate once seemingly destined for the Democratic nomination."
The story went on:

Many of her advisers are waging a two-front war, one against Sen. Barack Obama and the second against one another, but their most pressing challenge is figuring out why Clinton won in Ohio and Texas and trying to duplicate it. While [chief strategist Mark] Penn sees his strategy as a reason for the victories that have kept her candidacy alive, other advisers attribute the wins to her perseverance, favorable demographics, and a new campaign manager. Clinton won "despite us, not because of us," one said.

Neither Mark Penn nor Clinton's first choice of campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, lasted the entire campaign. Penn left the campaign after the Wall Street Journal reported that he had lobbied in support of a trade deal with Colombia that Clinton opposed. Solis Doyle was once so close to Clinton that she liked to say, "When I speak, Hillary is speaking." But by the time of her firing, Solis Doyle and Clinton were on such bad terms that Clinton let her go by email. 

The strategic leaking of Mook's and Marshall's listserv emails wouldn't have been at all out of place during Clinton's '08 campaign, as her aides bickered and backstabbed their way to defeat against a more cohesive—or at least functional—Obama campaign.

Over the past few years, I have interviewed a number of folks who have worked on various campaigns with Mook, dating back to Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid. I heard nothing but admiration and respect for someone routinely described to me as a smart and honest operative who kept his head down and disliked publicity.
Mook, using part of the Obama playbook, helped longtime Democratic fundraiser Terry McAuliffe win a tough fight for governor in Virginia. This victory, which impressed the Democratic political class, got people talking about Mook helming a Clinton campaign. But obviously not everyone is keen on that.

It's not known who was behind the Mook email dump. But for Democrats this prankish move raises a troubling question: is it possible to avoid conflict within Hillaryland? In 2008, Clinton demonstrated she could not head a cohesive, effective, and drama-free operation. Democrats who yearn for her to do better this time might be forgiven for looking at this episode and wondering, here we go again?

The candidate sets the tone and Hillary needs to take some people to the wood shed for a thrashing. 

Summing Up The Democrat Victory

The New York Times' editorial this morning has a good summary of where the USA finds itself this morning. The editorial is a severe indictment of the 8 years of misrule by the Chimperator, Emperor Palpatine Cheney, and the haters within the GOP. Obama faces huge problems that need to be addressed and will likely find it difficult to win over the wingnuts and hate merchants of the GOP base. Here are highlights from the editorial:

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His triumph was decisive and sweeping, because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He offered a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.

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Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and their tattered reputation around the world.

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With a message of hope and competence, he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless. The scenes Tuesday night of young men and women, black and white, weeping and cheering in Chicago and New York and in Atlanta’s storied Ebenezer Baptist Church were powerful and deeply moving.

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Mr. Obama inherits a terrible legacy. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama’s challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal from Iraq without igniting new conflicts so the Pentagon can focus its resources on the real front in the war on terror, Afghanistan.

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Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan. His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in.

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There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans lack health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.

How Obama Carried Virginia

As I have said before, Virginia is changing - albeit not quickly enough - and Barack Obama managed to capitalize on that change. True, the forces of the reactionary forces of the past (including a strong anti-gay contingent) still reign supreme in some areas such as the southwest part of the state and the southern tier running along the North Carolina border, but the older cities and Northern Virginia now have enough votes to override these forces. Here is a breakdown of how the older cities voted (a complete breakdown is here):

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Norfolk Barack Obama and Joe Biden 70.69%

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Richmond Barack Obama and Joe Biden 78.94%

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Roanoke Barack Obama and Joe Biden 60.96%

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Newport News Barack Obama and Joe Biden 62.63%

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Portsmouth Barack Obama and Joe Biden 66.81%

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Hampton Barack Obama and Joe Biden 67.19%

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Charlottesville Barack Obama and Joe Biden 78.46%

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Petersburg Barack Obama and Joe Biden 88.64%

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Even in the Republican bastions of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, McCain/Palin failed to get a full to 52% of the vote. Adding to the Obama win are the crushing win of Mark Warner against Jim Gilmore and Glenn Nye's defeat of Thelma Drake. The big question will be how this will translate into next year's state elections here in Virginia and whether the Democrats can regain enough power in the House of Delegates to push through more progressive legislation.

Wow!! Electoral Victory

It has been a very emotional and tumultuous day having worked inside a majority black precinct in Norfolk for "Protect the Vote" for the Obama campaign, then watching the returns, McCain's concession speech at the home of friends (accompanied with champagne toasts), and just moments ago Obama's victory speech. I feel emotionally wrung out, but in a wonderful way. For the Democrats in Virginia, it was a great day: Obama carries Virgina, Mark Warner annihilates Jim Gilmore in the U.S. Senate race, and Glenn Nye appears to have defeated GOP Congresswoman Thelma Drake in the 2nd Congressional district.

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I will post tomorrow more on my reflections on the day and what I observed, but I cannot omit mentioning the high emotions in the precinct where I worked (it went nearly 4 to 1 for Obama) seeing many first time black voters of all ages. Many truly did not believe that they would ever see the day that someone with African American heritage would win the White House. Some were in near tears and I will admit I teared up myself.

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The last things I will worry about as I try to get some need sleep is what happens with the Proposition 8 vote. Sadly, it looks like the anti-gay initiatives will pass in both Florida and Arizona (clear examples of discrimination based on religious belief, I would add). I pray to God that California does not follow suit. Needless to say, it's ironic that on the day a black man is elected as president of the United States, hate and discrimination are still alive and well against gays. Thankfully, John McCain will not be the one making nominations to the U. S. Supreme Court which is perhaps the last stop for LGBT Americans to find equal treatment and rights under the law. My happiness over the Obama win is greatly dampened and I cannot help but wonder if perhaps the USA is not the country in which I want to continue living.

Ronald Reagan, Jr. Endorses Obama

It's not a surprise to me, but Ronald Reagan, Jr.'s endorsement of Barack Obama will no doubt get some of the Christianist set acting like someone pissed in their Cheerios. Reagan is merely acting as any thinking, rational person would act if they are not over wrought by religious fanaticism, racism or denial of reality. Here's what Reagan said at Huffington Post:

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I assumed most people already knew that I had supported Obama. Anyone who has spent five minutes listening to my program would have known that. But if it helped to make it official, I'm happy to make it so.

Reflections on Obama's Ground Game in Virginia

Last evening I stopped by Obama headquarters in Norfolk to pick up some signs and badges for working as an attorney in the "Protect the Vote" tomorrow at a majority minority precinct in Norfolk. Having in the past been a GOP precinct captain and city committee member for 8 years, I have been around many campaigns and seen the behind the scenes view at party headquarters. Never, I repeat never have I seen the number of volunteers and the organization I saw last night. It was utterly amazing - the office was packed with organizers and volunteers. As I have said before, a candidate's campaign organization tells you what they will be like in office and Obama's campaign exceeds ANYTHING I have ever seen.

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A piece from Politico that references a GOP student in Charlottesville - probably at UVA - demonstrates the difference here on the ground in Virginia:

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I've been called by the Obama Campaign 20 times in the past week, along with at least one mailer on the door every day and several personal visits. Not a single thing from the McCain campaign.I'm hoping that the law of diminishing returns means that the excess of GOTV'ing is having a net negative effect. ....

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I'm as solid a McCain voter as one can be, but it's wearing to have to keep explaining to enthusiastic volunteers why I could possibly oppose Hope and Change — the repetition certainly creates an aura of inevitability. A single phone call or door knock from a Republican would be enormously encouraging.

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One has to wonder how anyone with intelligence can support McCain/Palin, but the contrast is stark. The difference in local support has also shown in the attendance at campaign rallies in Hampton Roads by the two presidential candidates: In two visits, Obama had more than 30,000 people show up. In contrast, McCain had perhaps 5,000 (and that's being generous). Based on their campaign organizations, a McCain administration would be a disaster whereas Obama's would be smart, organized and able to get the job done.

OMG - Palin Duped By Prank Comedy Call

FURTHER UPDATE: As the story of Bible Spice getting suckered by the Canadian comediennes makes the news circuit, here's what the Obama campaign had to say:

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Robert Gibbs, a senior advisor to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, told reporters in Springfield, Missouri: "I'm glad we check out our calls before we hand the phone to Barack Obama."

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McCain has run a horrific campaign and this incident clearly shows that no adult seems to be in charge. Perhaps a bit less smear tactics and some attention to what the hell is going on is needed.

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UPDATE: The story has made it into the MSM - here's a link to the Los Angeles Times coverage. I love this part:

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The phone call ended with Audette bringing up an adult film, which is being produced by Larry Flynt and reportedly features a Palin look-alike. He called it an edgy documentary.

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This too funny!! Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin and her team were fooled by a prank call from a Quebec comedy duo who convinced her that she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. I bet some one's ass will be in a sling big time. One has to wonder how such a call got through Palin's handlers. Personally, I'm a bit surprised that she knew what France is. Here are some highlight from cnews.ca (watch the video below - what will Tina Fey do with this one?):

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MONTREAL - A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state has reached Sarah Palin, convincing the Republican vice-presidential nominee she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In the roughly six-minute telephone interview released Saturday, Palin and the pranksters known as the Masked Avengers discuss politics, pundits, and the perils of hunting with Vice-President Dick Cheney.

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We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you," Palin is heard to gush to comedian Marc-Antoine Audette, masquerading as Sarkozy. Palin doesn't seem to realize she's being tricked until Audette tells her at the end of the interview. "Oh, have we been pranked?" she says. Seconds later, Palin's aide can be heard before the line goes dead. Throughout the conversation, Audette drops plenty of clues that something's amiss.

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They've been popular on the Quebec comedy scene for a decade. The Masked Avengers, who have a regular show on Montreal radio station CKOI, will air the full interview on the eve of the U.S. elections. It can also be heard in full on their website www.justiciers.tv .

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The Economist Endorses Obama

The Economist has long been a respected and conservative British business journal - I suspect that Sarah Palin has not only never crack the cover of an issue, but that she probably doesn't even know what The Economist is. It cannot be called socialist or liberal by any of the typical definitions thrown out by the GOP and far right in the USA to demonize Democrats. Thus, it is all the more noteworthy that The Economist has endorsed Obama as the best pick to lead the USA back to a sounder business/financial footing. Worse yet, it slams McCain/Palin. Here are some highlights:

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The United States is unhappy, divided and foundering both at home and abroad. Its self-belief and values are under attack. For all the shortcomings of the campaign, both John McCain and Barack Obama offer hope of national redemption. Now America has to choose between them. The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly: the Democratic candidate has clearly shown that he offers the better chance of restoring America’s self-confidence.

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At the beginning of this election year, there were strong arguments against putting another Republican in the White House. A spell in opposition seemed apt punishment for the incompetence, cronyism and extremism of the Bush presidency. Conservative America also needs to recover its vim. Somehow Ronald Reagan’s party of western individualism and limited government has ended up not just increasing the size of the state but turning it into a tool of southern-fried moralism.

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[T]he Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as “agents of intolerance” now embraces theocratic culture warriors. . . . Meanwhile his temperament, always perhaps his weak spot, has been found wanting. . . . The choice of Sarah Palin epitomised the sloppiness.

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Is Mr Obama any better? Most of the hoopla about him has been about what he is, rather than what he would do. His identity is not as irrelevant as it sounds. Merely by becoming president, he would dispel many of the myths built up about America: it would be far harder for the spreaders of hate in the Islamic world to denounce the Great Satan if it were led by a black man whose middle name is Hussein; and far harder for autocrats around the world to claim that American democracy is a sham. America’s allies would rally to him.

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There is no getting around the fact that Mr Obama’s résumé is thin for the world’s biggest job. But the exceptionally assured way in which he has run his campaign is a considerable comfort. It is not just that he has more than held his own against Mr McCain in the debates. A man who started with no money and few supporters has out-thought, out-organised and outfought the two mightiest machines in American politics—the Clintons and the conservative right.

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On the financial crisis his [Obama's] performance has been as assured as Mr McCain’s has been febrile. He seems a quick learner and has built up an impressive team of advisers, drawing in seasoned hands like Paul Volcker, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. Of course, Mr Obama will make mistakes; but this is a man who listens, learns and manages well.

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[T]his cannot be another election where the choice is based merely on fear. In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait.

Obama and the Jewish Vote - McCain Lies Fall Flat

John McSenile and Bible Spice have been doing their dishonest best to discredit Barack Obama with Jewish voters by beating to death the non-story of Obama's connections with Rashid Khalidi (never mind, of course, McSenile's own ties to Khalidi). As has been typical of the McSenile/Palin ticket, their whole campaign boils down to trying to smear Obama as opposed to discussing ideas and substantive proposals that they would implement if elected. Thus, I found this column by Edgar M. Bronfman, the former president of the World Jewish Congress and and chairman of the Board of Governors of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, all too funny; He basically kicks McSenile to the curb and identifies Palin as the world class cretin that she is in fact. Here are some highlights via the Huffington Post:

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I am supporting Obama for president for two reasons: one is my disdain for the McCain-Palin ticket, and the other my respect and admiration for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

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Among Jewish voters, some feel the basic question is which candidate will act in the best interest of Israel. The answer is Barack Obama. As an American Jew who loves Israel, I cannot support John McCain. He cannot provide what Israel needs most--a respected, credible, morally strong America. To have the United States and Israel both regarded by the rest of the world as unreliable and in isolation is no way to solve the problems that plague both countries. This has been the effect of the Bush policies, and these are the policies that John McCain has promised to continue. Barack Obama is the candidate who can restore America's moral authority in the world and position our government to help negotiate peace.

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John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is the towering example of his poor judgment. Palin's ignorance of public affairs is monumental. Especially disturbing to the Jewish voter should be her willing acceptance of the campaign assignment of demagogy, which has stirred up racism and hate. The prospect of our having a 72-year-old president in poor health raises the real possibility that Palin could be our president, a thoroughly frightening thought. (I am well aware, in my eightieth year, of the flagging energy of any 72-year-old.) McCain's choice of Palin was a bid to the extremists in the Republican party, not the considered choice of a man who puts his country first.

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Barack Obama is the leader who can begin to undo some of the damage done by Bush's policies. His background as an American who has lived among diverse cultures makes him sensitive to the cultural and religious motives that shape conflicts. He is cerebral, measured, calm, and pragmatic. By his character, he will engage these issues with more than stonewalling and weapons. He is brilliant in his choices of advisors. He is a tough idealist who has the courage to imagine an America that may inspire hope, not fear, in the Middle East and around the world.
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Obama can inspire much-needed support for Israel among this next generation of American Jews. . . . . He has articulated a vision for American society that does not ask us to ignore our differences--religious, racial, or economic--but to set aside divisive rhetoric and acknowledge that we all have a stake in building a more ethical society. Under his leadership a renewed America can help to foster a renewed Israel.

What This Presidential Election Is Really About

For those who know me and/or read this blog, they know that I am a political junky. I read numerous blogs and papers EVERY day. I also have the perspective of an attorney with 31 years legal experience, some of it as counsel in a Fortune 50 company. I’ve read numerous endorsement in this presidential election but one of the most powerful I have seen to date is that in Esquire magazine – the first it has EVER done in 75 years. It can be found here.

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The editorial takes it a while to warm up, but when it does, it spells out why this nation cannot stand another Republican administration and what is really at stake – and it’s far more than money and who will lower one’s tax bill - which seems to be all that my GOP friends care about - or who will most degridate gay Americans. I urge you to read the whole editorial. In a former job some 25 years ago, I traveled the world extensively, even once got to sit at a table with and talk to a head of state, and I got to see “Old Europe” as its detractors call it up close as well as parts of the Third World. At the time, America looked damn good and I was proud to be an American. But we have lost that America. Personally, I want it back. Here are some highlights from the Esquire Endorsement of Barack Obama:

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Senator Obama is the only one of the two candidates who seems to believe in the idea of a political commonwealth, that there are those things -- be they the guarantees in the Bill of Rights or mountains in Alaska -- that we own together. Barack Obama stands, however inchoately and however diffidently, for the notion that a common purpose is necessary for common problems, that "government," as it is designed in our founding documents, is our collective responsibility. It is this collective responsibility that built America into a great power without peer in the history of the world. And it is this collective responsibility that has succumbed to nearly thirty years of phony rightist populism, corporate brigandage, and the wildly cheered abandonment of a common American civic purpose. It is shocking that in America an argument for salvaging the common good is regarded as a radical notion by anyone, but that is where we are.
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This year it's more than enough because we are not all in that enterprise together anymore, and we have not been for some time. For seven years, for the purposes of deceitful war-making and constitutional vandalism, the president chose to preside over "the base," and the devil take the common good. For several years, before the war soured, and New Orleans drowned, and he meddled grotesquely with how a woman's family in Florida chose to allow her to die, and mocked the very institutions he was to protect, this was praised as the height of political acumen. The incompetent president and his wolfish advisors were encouraged and enabled in their various schemes and praised for their cleverness into the bargain. Anyone who questioned what was going on -- any member of what was once memorably described to writer Ron Suskind as the "reality-based community" -- was of no consequence, their voices ignored, their concerns as foreign as those of a tribesman in New Guinea.

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And now, with it all in ruins, it's time to move ahead, without recriminations or even without maintaining the simple clarity of the historical record? That is not change we can believe in. And that is precisely where Barack Obama is frozen. But make no mistake, in our view the senator from Illinois is the only possible choice to lead the country. . . . John McCain has decided on a cheap and dishonorable campaign. He has embraced the tactics with which he was slandered in 2000, and he has hired the people responsible for them. In so doing, he has become something of a mockery of everything he once purported to be.
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That McCain is now attempting to seize the mantle of "change" for himself is profoundly absurd. And that he expects the American people to swallow it is profoundly insulting. History demands that this election be a referendum on the Bush years, and John McCain has tried desperately to change the subject.
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Then, of course, he picked an agent of intolerance to join him on his ticket. But it is not Governor Palin's religious beliefs that are of concern to us. More to the point, there is no serious debate to be had over Sarah Palin's preparedness to be president of the United States. Because in fact, she is stunningly unqualified, having never taken a position of consequence on an issue of consequence before she was selected in the last days of August. But she has now been put in a serious position to assume the presidency, and her selection is the clearest indication yet of the contempt that Senator McCain -- transformed into nominee McCain -- now feels for the process of governance.
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More than any other recent election, we are voting this year not merely for a president but to overthrow two governments. The one we can see is the one in which constitutional order has been defaced, the national spirit degraded, and the country unrecognizable because so much of the best of itself has been sold off or frittered away. The other one is the far more insidious one, a doppelgänger nation of black prisons, shredded memos, and secret justifications for even more secret crimes. Moreover, the current administration has worked hard not only to immunize itself from the political and legal consequences of the government we can see, but it has also worked within the one we cannot see in order to perpetuate itself. For the past several months, it has worked to make extricating ourselves from the catastrophe it has wrought in Iraq as hard as possible. It has sought to make permanent the culture of corporate brigandage and predatory incompetence that it has made a hallmark of its stewardship of the country and its government. Salted throughout the vast bureaucracy are dozens of little homeschooled land mines, the products of a dozen cheapjack diploma mills selling patent-medicine history to the spiritually gullible.
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And nowhere is it more clearly visible than in the federal courts. It is in the courts where the depredations of the past seven years can become permanent. It is in the courts where the un-American legacy of George W. Bush can live forever -- or, at least, as long as most of the rest of us do. The Supreme Court already is dangerously close to an extremist conservative majority, and Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito were both born after John Paul Stevens already had passed the bar, and it was Stevens who, as recently as last June's Boumediene decision, helped create a thin 5 -- 4 majority in favor of reestablishing the right of habeas corpus for those people being detained by the administration in places like Guantánamo Bay.
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There is no evidence at all that anything will change under a President John McCain, who has already identified Roberts and Alito as his beau ideals of Supreme Court justices. . . The virus will gestate and spread on his watch, all throughout the federal government. Bushism must be ripped out, root and branch, everywhere it has been established, or else the presidential election of 2008 is a worthless exercise in futility. Barack Obama may not be the man to do it, but John McCain, for all his laudable qualities, clearly is neither willing nor able to do so.

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To continue to govern ourselves this way is unthinkable. It is unsustainable as a democracy to continue to mock so egregiously in secret what we continue to profess in public. That is the task for the next president. That is the main reason to vote for Barack Obama of Illinois. We strongly encourage you to do so.

Log Cabin Hissy Fits

I guess the strain of trying to delude themselves into believing that by supporting the McCain/Palin ticket they are not acting like Jews for Hitler is getting to the Log Cabin Republicans (click the photo for a larger copy). Hence the rantings against those who rightly point out the idiocy of the LCR's endorsement of John McCain.

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Personally, I am a bit dumb founded as to how the LCR can define McCain as "the most pro-gay GOP presidential nominee in American history." The facts are that McCain has opposed EVERY piece of pro-gay legislation in Congress. True, he doesn't support - or so he says - the Federal Marriage Amendment but on the issue of gay marriage he supports state constitutional bans. Hello!!! About the only other thing McCain has done is not publicly advocate for the re-enactment of the sodomy laws. But then he doesn't need to - he'll simply appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would join Scalia, et al, and reverse Lawrence v. Texas. I think it's about time the LCR admit their self-loathing and go enroll in Daddy Dobson's "Love Won Out" ex-gay program. At least then they'd be honest with themselves and the rest of the LGBT community.

Another Face of Hate and Evil

I have long known that James Dobson - who pretends to be some harmless grandfather figure on his broadcasts - is a leading homophobe and hate merchant. Moreover, the man has no regard for the truthful and has turned the Gospel message into a vile message of hate and division. However, now, even this disingenuous, power mad, money hungry and evil fraud has out done himself in terms of trying to ratchet up hatred against LGBT citizens. Dobson has issued a an anti-Obama letter - I want to know if it is via Focus on the Family proper or not because if it is, perhaps the IRS needs to revisit its tax exempt status - which depicts gay Americans and our equality under the law as some pestilence from the Old Testament. Much of what is set out in Dobson's "Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America" is utterly untrue and - excuse my "French" - bullshit. But then, lies and bullshit aimed at harming the LGBT community are Dobson's stock in trade. The sad thing is that far too many Kool-Aid drinkers of the far right will read this crap and believe it true. The man is truly a menace to civil society and needs to be exposed for the lying fraud that he has long been. Here are a few high lights from Dobson's hate based screed:

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Finally the far-Left had the highest prize: complete control of the Supreme Court. And they set about quickly to expedite cases by which they would enact the entire agenda of the far Left in American politics – everything they had hoped for and more took just a few key decisions.

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Same-sex “marriage” The most far-reaching transformation of American society came from the Supreme Court’s stunning affirmation, in early 2010, that homosexual “marriage” was a “constitutional” right that had to be respected by all 50 states because laws barring same-sex “marriage” violated the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Suddenly, homosexual “marriage” was the law of the land in all 50 states. . .

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Boy Scouts: “The land of the free”? The Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.

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Elementary schools: “The land of the free”? Elementary schools now include compulsory training in varieties of gender identity in Grade 1, including the goodness of homosexuality as one possible personal choice. Many parents tried to “opt out” their children from such sessions, but the courts have ruled they cannot do this. . .

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Adoption agencies: “The land of the free”? There are no more Roman Catholic or evangelical Protestant adoption agencies in the United States. Following earlier rulings in New York 7and Massachusetts,8 the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 ruled that these agencies had to agree to place children with homosexual couples or lose their licenses.

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Public broadcasting: “The land of the free”? The Bible can no longer be freely preached over radio or television stations when the subject matter includes such “offensive” doctrines as criticizing homosexual behavior.

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Homosexual weddings: “The land of the free”? Church buildings are now considered a “public accommodation” by the Supreme Court, and churches have no freedom to refuse to allow their buildings to be used for wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.

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Homosexuals in the military: One change regarding the status of homosexuals did not wait for any Supreme Court decision. In the first week after his inauguration, President Obama invited homosexual rights leaders from around the United States to join him at the White House as he signed an executive order directing all branches of the military to abandon their “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and to start actively recruiting homosexuals.

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Christian books: After the Supreme Court legalized same “sex marriage,” homosexual-activist groups targeted three large Christian book publishers that had publications arguing that homosexual conduct was wrong based on the teachings of the Bible. . . . As a result, those evangelical publishers could no longer distribute any of their books through any of these bookstore chains. Any Christian publisher that dares to print works critical of homosexual behavior faces the same fate. As a result, several Christian publishers have gone out of business.
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Obviously, Dobson has been re-reading his Joseph Goebbels handbook on propaganda tactics used against Jews in Nazi Germany to craft his very similar attack method on gays. One can only wonder how many LGBT citizens will be subjected to hate, violence and/or death at the hands of those listening to Dobson's hate speech. Dobson is many things, but being a true Christian is not one of them.

New York Times Slams Palin Debate Performance

I watched the vice presidential debate this evening with a group of friends and while Sarah Palin did not come across as the complete cretin that she is in reality, I believe Joe Biden clearly won the debate. Palin frequently never even answered the question posed to her and repeatedly slipped into GOP talking points and double speak when she had no earthly understanding of the question and/or how to answer it. She clearly confirmed that the GOP revels in ignorance. After all, the Christianist base of the GOP rejects science, rejects evolution, and rejects competent medical and mental health expert opinion. Why should Palin be any different? The one interesting point is that Palin said she agreed with Biden on civil legal rights for gay couples. James Dobson, et al must be having a veritable stroke. I suspect the Chritianists will rip Palin a new one for that comment. Here are some highlights from the New York Times:

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We cannot recall when there were lower expectations for a candidate than the ones that preceded Sarah Palin’s appearance in Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate with Joseph Biden. After a series of stumbling interviews that raised serious doubts even among conservatives about her fitness to serve as vice president, Ms. Palin had to do little more than say one or two sensible things and avoid an election-defining gaffe.

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By that standard, but only by that standard, the governor of Alaska did well. But Ms. Palin never really got beyond her talking points in 90 minutes, mostly repeating clichés and tired attack lines and energetically refusing to answer far too many questions.

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When it came to domestic issues, Ms. Palin mainly relied on enthusiasm and humor, talking about hockey moms, soccer moms and Joe Sixpack almost as often as she used the word “maverick” to describe Mr. McCain or herself. But she offered virtually no detail — beyond the Republican mantra of tax cuts — for how she and Mr. McCain would address the financial crisis or help Americans avoid foreclosure or what programs they would cut because of the country’s disastrous fiscal problems.

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Ms. Palin’s primary tactic was simply to repeat the same thing over and over: John McCain is a maverick. So is she. To stay on that course, she had to indulge in some wildly circular logic: America does not want another Washington insider. They want Mr. McCain (who has been in Congress for nearly 26 years). Ms. Palin condemned Wall Street greed and said she and Mr. McCain would “demand” strict oversight. In virtually the next breath, she said government should “get out of the way” of American business.

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In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

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The woman is so out of her league that it is terribly frightening. What the Hell was John McCain thinking when he selected this mental midget??

Carl Bernstein Savages McCain

Carl Bernstein , the former Washington Post reporter of Watergate fame, has a column that is nothing short of a brutal in his assessment of the craven, dishonorable figure John McCain has become. Not only are his campaign tactics worthy of a slimy used car salesman, but his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate becomes less defensible with every passing minute that she opens her mouth. Again, I am not anti-woman and have two extremely intelligent and capable daughters. From watching Palin's interviews and reading the transcripts, my 19 year old college student daughter is (a) more savvy (and more honest), and (2) knows a hell of a lot more about issues, both domestic and foreign.

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Palin calls herself a hockey mom. Candidly, she strikes me as a cold weather version of the mindless soccer moms of this area who worry about children's sports events and piss ant PTA fundraisers, yet are oblivious as to the larger issues in the state, nation and the world. And I reach that assessment without even having to factor in her lunatic religious beliefs. With Palin on the national ticket, no wonder there is talk of America's fading empire. We must look like absolute morons - what McCain and the GOP apparently are counting on - to those living in educated foreign countries. Here are highlights from Bernstein's column:

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Three weeks after the 2008 Republican convention, on the cusp (maybe) of the first presidential debate, it is time to confront an awkward but profound question: whether in picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has committed -- by his own professed standards of duty and honor -- a singularly unpatriotic act.

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[W]hat does John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin -- the cavalier, last-minute process of her selection and careless vetting; and her over-briefed, fact-lite performance since -- reveal about this military man who has attested to us for years that he is guided by his personal code of honor?

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It does not take a near-death experience to know that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be commander in chief, or that -- in choosing her -- McCain has ignored his own oft-avowed code of conduct. "McCain made the most important command decision of his life when he chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee," noted David Ignatius in the Washington Post. "....No promotion board in history would have made such a decision."

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The conservative commentator George Will has been especially incisive of late about the "dismaying," "un-presidential temperament" of McCain and the sleazy tenor of his campaign. Karl Rove (!) has responded to the incessant lying of McCain's ads (one claims falsely that Obama has promoted "comprehensive" sex education for five-year-olds -- he had, in fact, endorsed legislation to insure that kindergartners were warned about sexual predators), by saying, yes, the McCain camp's mendacity has "gone one step too far."

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The issue of Palin's relative ignorance about international affairs and the larger world beyond America's shores (compared to previous vice presidential nominees), her attending arrogance in seeming to revel in it, and McCain's decision to subject the country to it in choosing a possible president -- is the biggest question in this election, or perhaps ought to be.

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Ultimately it is the choice of Palin, made in the moment when action speaks loudest, that may undermine a quarter-century of assertions by John McCain about the preeminence of duty, honor and country in his political schema.

Ed Koch Endorses Obama; Make a Donation Today!

Hopefully Ed Koch will be one of a huge number of Jewish voters who endorse Barack Obama and defect from their past support of the Republican Party. John McCain's selection of confirmed Christianist, Sarah Palin, as his VP running mate ought to terrify Jewish voters. Palin's church and apparent religious beliefs make the Chimperator's religious views look benign in comparison. If McCain were to die or become disabled in office, Palin would become president and the Christianist hold on the government would threaten religious freedom for all others. When asked by Politico why he decided to endorse Obama, Koch stated as follows:

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"The designation of Palin to be vice president," he said. "She's scary." He said he was alarmed by the report that she'd triggered a conflict with the local librarian in Wasilla, Alaska by inquiring about the possibility of banning books. "Any time someone goes to the library and says, 'I want to ban books,' and the librarian says 'no,' and she threatens to fire them -- that's scary," he said.

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Sadly, I fear that too many people are not paying enough attention to realize just how far Palin's beliefs are out of the mainstream. Here is Koch's official statement:

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I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.

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If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency.

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On a different front, the MSM seems to be again falling into a trend of carrying water for the McCain campaign. Today's New York Times has a story that the McCain folks must love about Obama's decision not to accept public funding. What was my response? I made a contribution to Obama as my way of flipping the bird to McCain/Palin. To make a donation to Obama/Biden, go here: https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/splashtshirt

Today's GOP: Running From Reality

As a former Republican (and now ardent Democrat, as are all the members of my extended family who have likewise fled the GOP), I am disgusted with what the Party has become and how patently dishonest the Party has become. The first principle of the Party seems to be that of NEVER TELL THE TRUTH and like naughty children pretend someone else created the mess and is responsible for discovered misdeeds. The ultimate question in the November elections is whether or not enough Americans are stupid - yes, I said stupid - enough to buy the bull shit being spun by the GOP. Listening to MSNBC as I am blogging, I am near nauseated by the GOP talking heads making statements they know are down right untrue. They claim to be the Party of God, yet constantly disregard the Commandment against lying and bearing false witness. Bob Herbert at the New York Times has a column today that looks at this phenomenon. Here are some highlights:

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If there was one pre-eminent characteristic of the Republican convention this week, it was the quality of deception. Words completely lost their meaning. Reality was turned upside down. From the faux populist gibberish mouthed by speaker after speaker, you would never have known that the Republicans have been in power over the past several years and used that titanic power to lead the country to its present sorry state.

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If there were any good ideas at this convention of mostly rich and mostly right-wing delegates about how to haul the country out of this mess that the G.O.P. has gotten it into, they were kept well hidden. Perhaps they were tucked away behind the more prominently displayed creationism and “just-say-no to global warming” documents.

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It stretches the mind almost to the breaking point to think of John McCain as an agent of substantive change. He once believed that Phil Gramm was the most qualified person in the United States to be president. And he now believes that Sarah Palin is the most qualified to be vice president. That is not the fault of Mr. Gramm or Ms. Palin. But it sure tells us a lot about the judgment of John McCain.

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For most voters, the No. 1 issue in this campaign is the financial struggle facing working families that are trying to cope with job losses, declining wages, the high cost of health care, home foreclosures, bankruptcies and the like. To a great extent these problems are the result of national policies, forged under Republican rule, that overwhelmingly favored the interests of the very wealthy over working people.

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Senator McCain’s economic guru through all of this was Mr. Gramm, a former Republican senator from Texas and chairman of the banking committee. . . . Phil Gramm was one of the lead architects of the breathtakingly irresponsible policies (No more restraints! No more regulation!) that led to the subprime mortgage meltdown and the current credit disaster.

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To Senator McCain’s great embarrassment, Mr. Gramm dismissed the economic downturn as a “mental recession” and complained that the U.S. had become a “nation of whiners.” That may have been a political no-no, but it was an accurate expression of the slavish devotion of the G.O.P. to the rich and powerful among us, and of the party’s contempt for the interests of working families and the poor. Senator McCain, it should be noted, fully shared Mr. Gramm’s anti-regulatory zeal.

Is Sarah Palin Representative of McCain's Flawed Judgment?

The New York Times has a new piece out today that raises real questions as to what John McCain was thinking - or not thinking as may be more the case - when he selected Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. It increasingly seems as if McSenile did very little homework before selecting Palin and he may have foolishly set the stage for one embarrassment after another. This is certainly NOT the judgement one wants in a president. We have already suffered through eight years of the Chimperator's idiocy and non-researched actions. Palin's selection suggests a McCain presidency would be a Bush third term in even more ways than otherwise anticipated. Let me be clear, I am not attacking Palin as a person (although I DO find her Christian Right beliefs scary). I merely believe that her selection was idiocy on McCain's part. He should have thoroughly researched her BEFORE he selected her, not afterwards. Here are some story highlights:

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ST. PAUL — A series of disclosures about Gov. Sarah Palin, Senator John McCain’s choice as running mate, called into question on Monday how thoroughly Mr. McCain had examined her background before putting her on the Republican presidential ticket. . . . . Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin.

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While there was no sign that her formal nomination this week was in jeopardy, the questions swirling around Ms. Palin on the first day of the Republican National Convention, already disrupted by Hurricane Gustav, brought anxiety to Republicans who worried that Democrats would use the selection of Ms. Palin to question Mr. McCain’s judgment and his ability to make crucial decisions. At the least, Republicans close to the campaign said it was increasingly apparent that Ms. Palin had been selected as Mr. McCain’s running mate with more haste than McCain advisers initially described.

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[T]he campaign was bombarded by outrage from influential conservatives who predicted an explosive floor fight at the convention and vowed rejection of Mr. Ridge or Mr. Lieberman by the delegates. Perhaps more important, several Republicans said, Mr. McCain was getting advice that if he did not do something to shake up the race, his campaign would be stuck on a potentially losing trajectory.

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In Alaska, several state leaders and local officials said they knew of no efforts by the McCain campaign to find out more information about Ms. Palin before the announcement of her selection, Although campaigns are typically discreet when they make inquiries into potential running mates, officials in Alaska said Monday they thought it was peculiar that no one in the state had the slightest hint that Ms. Palin might be under consideration. “They didn’t speak to anyone in the Legislature, they didn’t speak to anyone in the business community,” said Lyda Green, the State Senate president, who lives in Wasilla, where Ms. Palin served as mayor.

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Representative Gail Phillips, a Republican and former speaker of the State House, said the widespread surprise in Alaska when Ms. Palin was named to the ticket made her wonder how intensively the McCain campaign had vetted her. “I started calling around and asking, and I have not been able to find one person that was called,” Ms. Phillips said. “I called 30 to 40 people, political leaders, business leaders, community leaders. Not one of them had heard. Alaska is a very small community, we know people all over, but I haven’t found anybody who was asked anything.”

MSNBC questions Charlie Crist's engagement

Long rumored closet case, Florida Governor Charlie Crist's faux engagement became a topic of discussion on MSNBC the other night. Crist, whom I have discussed in numerous posts in the past - use the blog's search function to find them all - got engaged many believe so that John McSenile would be more likely to select him for the Vice President slot on the GOP ticket. While the talk of a staged engagement/marriage has been all over the gay media, it's interesting that talking heads on MSNBC brought it up as well. Here's highlights from the Washington Blade:

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A writer at Think Progress was watching MSNBC—someone has to, better him than us— as the talking heads discussed potential running mates for John Mccain, and whether there is a “glass ceiling” for unmarried politicians. Andrea Mitchell used Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) as an example, suggesting he'll miss out on the VP nomination because he isn't married; but then the other pundits became confused. Is he married? Or is he engaged? Chuck Todd cleared things up, however, when he suggested the engagement may be staged so Crist can have a shot at the Vice Presidency:

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SCARBOROUGH: Did he get married? I thought he was engaged. Is he engaged or did he get married?

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TODD: After Friday the engagement might be off if he's not the running mate, right?...I don't know!

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We hate to say it, but Crist's marital status probably isn't the reason he won't get the nomination. He was probably included in the list just to woo voters in Florida, a.k.a. "Largest Swing State In America." He's certainly worked hard for the job—he even endorsed Florida's Amendment 2, which would define man/woman marriage in the state constitution, just so he could seem like a good right-winger for Uncle John. Sorry, Charlie.

U.S. Bankruptcy Filings Rise 28.9%

As the presidential campaign rhetoric picks up this week it is telling that John McCain still doesn't get it when it comes to what is happening to many formerly middle class families. As the the Los Angeles Times is reporting, the number of individuals filing bankruptcy is up by nearly a third from a year ago. I know that a number of my clients who were very prosperous as recently as two years ago have now been forced to seek Chapter 13 protections or have placed their businesses into Chapter 7 because of the fall out from the collapse of the real estate market. Even though the new bankruptcy code makes it harder for people to file, the number of filings is up. The economy IS BAD whether or not McCain notices it as he travels from one of his wife's mansions to the next. Here are some story highlights:

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NEW YORK -- Nearly 1 million individuals and businesses filed bankruptcy in the 12 months ended June 30, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court data released Wednesday.There were 967,831 bankruptcy cases filed since July 1, 2007, up 28.9% from the prior 12 months, when cases totaled 751,056.

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Nonbusiness filings made up 96.5% of the bankruptcies nationwide, totaling 934,009. Of those cases 592,376 were Chapter 7 filings, which involve liquidation of nonprotected assets, such as family homes. The total also included 340,852 filings for Chapter 13 protection, which allows individuals to reorganize their finances and pay down their debt.

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Another economic report Wednesday found that U.S. thrifts lost $5.4 billion in the second quarter and set aside a record amount to cover losses from bad mortgages and other loans.Data from the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision showed federally insured savings and loans posted their second-largest quarterly loss ever in the April-June period, after the $8.8-billion loss in the fourth quarter of last year.