Monday Male Beauty

100,000 at Obama Rally in Denver

Admittedly, I have been an Obama supporter for most of this year, with Obama largely having "closed the deal" on my vote back when I heard him speak in Virginia Beach before the Virginia Democratic primary. Besides being impressed by the fact that I think Obama actually believes much of what he says, I found his campaign organization to be the best of any that I have ever seen, and I have worked on many campaigns. If a campaign is disorganized and flip flopping around, its a very strong indication of what the candidate's administration and staff will look like if they are elected. Hillary's campaign at times was bi-polar and McCain's is worthy of a mental institution. I think voters are increasingly recognizing that with an Obama presidency, we have the chance for a grown up in the White House for the first time in many, many years. Hence the huge campaign rally turn outs such as in Denver over the weekend. In contrast, a McCain/Palin administration would be like putting a kindergartner in charge. Here are some highlights from the Rocky Mountain News:

*

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama spoke this morning to an estimated crowd of 100,000 at Civic Center Park. He then traveled north to speak at a rally in Fort Collins. [Where] Ken Quintana, director of security and safety services for Colorado State University, estimated the crowd at 45,250.

*

Speaking on the lawn to students who had been gathering since 4 a.m., Obama urged them to put an end to the philosophies of President George Bush and Sen. John McCain. “I can take nine more days of John McCain’s attacks,” Obama said. “But what the American people can’t take is four more years of the same thing. We’re not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain.” Obama also hit hard on the need for new jobs and more renewable energy. “I know these are difficult times in Fort Collins. I know many of you are worried,” he said.

*

Obama drew a huge crowd in Denver earlier in the day when he spoke to an estimated 100,000 people at Civic Center Park, hammering away at the economic themes that have come to dominate the final days of the campaign. It was another electric political moment in a remarkable 2008 in Denver, and in Colorado - a once reliably Republican state. It’s turned Colorado into a political battleground attracting repeated visits from both the Obama-Joe Biden campaign and Republican candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin.

*
The enormous and fired-up crowd Sunday appears to be another mark of Obama’s popularity in a state where a Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll published on Saturday found Obama with a 12-point lead in a survey of 500 registered voters.

Final Sunday Male Beauty

McCain, Macaca and Hope for America

Like many others, I have been increasingly appalled by the racism and anti-immigrant mind set which increasingly defines the Republican Party and the McCain/Palin Ticket. Palin's cries stirring up hatred at campaign rallies are disgusting and her endorsement of more anti-gay measures is merely icing on the cake. I sincerely hope that the American public will resoundingly reject this hate based vision of America. Frank Rich's column takes a look at this phenomenon and the way the GOP's intolerant message will hopeful backfire on November 4th. While Rich does not make the tie, what is of note is that the main players in formulating and furthering the GOP's toxic measure are the self-styled, falsely pious members of the Christian Right. Here are some highlights:

*

IT seems like a century ago now, but it was only in 2005 that a National Journal poll of Beltway insiders predicted that George Allen, then a popular Virginia senator, would be the next G.O.P. nominee for president. George who? Allen is now remembered, if at all, as a punch line. But any post-mortem of the Great Republican Collapse of 2008 must circle back to the not-so-funny thing that happened on his way to the White House.

*

Cut to 2008. You’d think that this incident would be a cautionary tale, but the McCain campaign instead embraced Allen as a role model, with Palin’s odes to “real” and “pro-America” America leading the charge. The farcical apotheosis of this strategy arrived last weekend, again on camera and again in Virginia, when a McCain adviser, Nancy Pfotenhauer, revived Allen’s original script, literally, during an interview on MSNBC. After dismissing the Northern Virginia suburbs, she asserted that the “real Virginia” — the part of the state “more Southern in nature” — will prove “very responsive” to the McCain message. All Pfotenhauer left out was “macaca.

*

There are at least two larger national lessons to be learned from what is likely to be the last gasp of Allen-McCain-Palin politics in 2008. The first, and easy one, is that Republican leaders have no idea what “real America” is. In the eight years since the first Bush-Cheney convention pledged inclusiveness and showcased Colin Powell as its opening-night speaker, the G.O.P. has terminally alienated black Americans (Powell himself now included), immigrant Americans (including the Hispanics who once gave Bush-Cheney as much as 44 percent of their votes) and the extended families of gay Americans (Palin has now revived a constitutional crusade against same-sex marriage). Subtract all those players from the actual America, and you don’t have enough of a bench to field a junior varsity volleyball team, let alone a serious campaign for the Electoral College.

*
But the other, less noticed lesson of the year has to do with the white people the McCain campaign has been pandering to. As we saw first in the Democratic primary results and see now in the widespread revulsion at the McCain-Palin tactics, white Americans are not remotely the bigots the G.O.P. would have us believe. Just because a campaign trades in racism doesn’t mean that the country is racist. It’s past time to come to the unfairly maligned white America’s defense.

*

[D]espite the months-long drumbeat of punditry to the contrary, there are not and have never been enough racists in 2008 to flip this election. In the latest New York Times/CBS News and Pew national polls, Obama is now pulling even with McCain among white men, a feat accomplished by no Democratic presidential candidate in three decades, Bill Clinton included. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey finds age doing more damage to McCain than race to Obama.

*

[The] conservative warriors of the Allen-McCain-Palin ilk . . . . see all Americans as only white or black, as either us or them. The dirty little secret of such divisive politicians has always been that their rage toward the Others is exceeded only by their cynical conviction that Real Americans are a benighted bunch of easily manipulated bigots. This seems to be the election year when voters in most of our myriad Americas are figuring that out.

Cindy McCain, Marie Antoinette and Sarah Palin

Some days Maureen Dowd just cracks me up with her wit and skill as a wordsmith. Her latest column in the New York Times which looks at the tone deafness - read stupidity - of the McCain/Palin ticket in terms of botching the effort to depict Barack Obama as the elitist instead of themselves. Between Cindy McCain's appearance in a $300,000 out fit and jewels at the GOP Convention and "Caribou Barbie" Palin's receipt of $150,000 in clothes - not to mention her $32,800 for hair styling and makeup during the first two weeks of October - the anti-Obama effort falls more than flat. Particularly when contrasted with Michelle Obama who appeared on The View in a $148 off the rack dress. Here are some highlights from Dowd's column:

*

McCain advisers have been scathing about the “sexism” of critics who dismiss Sarah Palin as Caribou Barbie. How odd then, to learn that McCain advisers have been treating their own vice presidential candidate like Valentino Barbie, dressing her up in fancy clothes and endlessly playing with her hair.

*

The Republicans’ attempt to make the case that Barack Obama is hoity-toity and they’re hoi polloi has fallen under the sheer weight of the stunning numbers: The McCains own 13 cars, eight homes and access to a corporate jet, and Cindy had her Marie Antoinette moment at the convention. Vanity Fair calculated that her outfit cost $300,000, with three-carat diamond earrings worth $280,000, an Oscar de la Renta dress valued at $3,000, a Chanel white ceramic watch clocking in at $4,500 and a four-strand pearl necklace worth between $11,000 and $25,000. While presenting herself as an I’m-just-like-you hockey mom frugal enough to put the Alaska state plane up for sale on eBay, Palin made her big speech at the convention wearing a $2,500 cream silk Valentino jacket that the McCain staff had gotten her at Saks.

*

At that point, Palin should have been savvy enough to tell those doing her makeover that she was a Wal-Mart mom. The sartorial upgrade was bound to turn into a strategy downgrade, as Palin pressed her case as a homespun gal who was ever so much more American than the elite, foreignish Obama, while she was gussied up in Italian couture.

*

Republicans once more charged the media with sexism for reporting on Palin’s Imelda Marcos closet. “No one would blink if this was a male candidate buying Brooks Brothers suits,” said William F. B. O’Reilly, a G.O.P. consultant. . . . Palin already seemed on top of her grooming before the McCain campaign made her traveling makeup artist, Amy Strozzi, the highest-paid individual on the campaign for the first two weeks of October. Ms. Strozzi, who earned an Emmy nomination for her war paint skills on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance,” made $22,800 for the first half of this month.

*

Governor Palin, who used to get her hair done at the Beehive in Wasilla and shop at an Anchorage consignment shop called Out of the Closet, paid her traveling hairstylist — recommended by Cindy McCain — $10,000 for the first half of October. . . . In The New York Times Magazine today, Robert Draper reveals that the campaign also hired a former New York stage and screen actress, Priscilla Shanks, to be her voice coach for the convention.

More Sunday Male Beauty

Anchorage Daily News Endorses Obama

Sarah Palin's more or less home town paper has endorsed Barack Obama for president in its editorial today. Of note is the fact that the paper flat out states that Palin is NOT ready for prime time noting that putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time. If anything, the Anchorgae Daily News was too easy on Palin, but given her history of seeking vengence, the thrust of the editorial is focused on why Obama is the better choice. Here are some highlights:

*

Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency -- but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation.
*

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand. The same cannot be said of Sen. McCain.

*

Sen. McCain has stumbled and fumbled badly in dealing with the accelerating crisis as it emerged. He declared that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" at 9 a.m. one day and by 11 a.m. was describing an economy in crisis. He is both a longtime advocate of less market regulation and a supporter of the huge taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. His behavior in this crisis -- erratic is a kind description -- shows him to be ill-equipped to lead the essential effort of reining in a runaway financial system and setting an anxious nation on course to economic recovery.

*

Sen. Obama warned regulators and the nation 19 months ago that the subprime lending crisis was a disaster in the making. Sen. McCain backed tighter rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but didn't do much to advance that legislation. Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it.

*

Sadly, maverick John McCain didn't show up for the campaign. Instead we have candidate McCain, who embraces the extreme Republican orthodoxy he once resisted and cynically asks Americans to buy for another four years. It is Sen. Obama who truly promises fundamental change in Washington.

*

[F]ew who have worked closely with the governor [Palin] would argue she is truly ready to assume command of the most important, powerful nation on earth. To step in and juggle the demands of an economic meltdown, two deadly wars and a deteriorating climate crisis would stretch the governor beyond her range. Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time.

The Demise of the GOP?

I have maintained for some time - going all the way back some years ago when I resigned from the Party - that the Republican Party's increased intertwining with the lunatic elements of the "Christian" Right - which is neither Christian nor right on the issues - would have disastrous consequences in terms of driving away moderate Republicans and independents. With the constant coverage of the true hate, religious extremism and and anti-intellect nature of the Republican base over the last couple of months, moderates and independents are learning just how scary these people are in fact.

*

What I pray will be John McCain's losing bid for the White House seems to be bearing out my prediction from seven some years ago even though it sadly took 8 years of the Chimperator to set the stage. Now, leading Republicans who do not fall into the Kool-Aid drinker element of the Party are jumping ship as if they were fleeing the Titanic or Lusitania. David Frum, who was a speechwriter for George Bush and now works at the right wing American Enterprise Institute, has a column in today's Washington Post that basically trashes McCain/Palin and - if one reads between the lines - ultimately the lunatic Christianists of the party who are proving themselves to be radioactive with moderates and independents. Here ar some highlights:

*

There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him. . . .[I]n August, McCain tried a bold new gambit: He would reach out to independents and women with an exciting and unexpected vice presidential choice. That didn't work out so well either. Gov. Sarah Palin connected with neither independents nor women. She did, however, ignite the Republican base, which has come to support her passionately. And so, in this last month, the McCain campaign has Palinized itself to make the most of its last asset. To fire up the Republican base, the McCain team has hit at Barack Obama as an alien, a radical and a socialist.

*

Sure enough, the base has responded. After months and months of wan enthusiasm among Republicans, these last weeks have at last energized the core of the party. But there's a downside: The very same campaign strategy that has belatedly mobilized the Republican core has alienated and offended the great national middle, which was the only place where the 2008 election could have been won.

*

I could pile up the poll numbers here, but frankly . . . it's too depressing. You have to go back to the Watergate era to see numbers quite so horrible for the GOP. McCain's awful campaign is having awful consequences down the ballot. I spoke a little while ago to a senior Republican House member. "There is not a safe Republican seat in the country," he warned. "I don't mean that we're going to lose all of them. But we could lose any of them." In the Senate, things look, if possible, even worse.

*

In these last days before the vote, Republicans need to face some strategic realities. Our resources are limited, and our message is failing. We cannot fight on all fronts. We are cannibalizing races that we must win and probably can win in order to help a national campaign that is almost certainly lost. In these final 10 days, our goal should be: senators first.

*

What should Republicans be doing differently? Two things: 1. Every available dollar that can be shifted to a senatorial campaign must be shifted to a senatorial campaign. . . . . 2. We need a message change that frankly acknowledges that the Democrats are probably going to win the White House -- and that warns of the dangers of one-party, left-wing government. . . . It's the only argument we have left. And, as the old Washington saying goes, it has the additional merit of being true.

Sunday Male Beauty

What the California Supreme Court Really Ruled

Time and time again I have commented upon the deliberate dishonesty of the Christianists in general and the Yes on 8 crowd in California. One regular reader in California reminded me of something that definitively shows that the claims that civil marriage for same-sex couples will impact religious denominations is a LIE. The California Supreme Court decision of May 15, 2008, specifically states as follows regarding religious denominations:

*

Affording same-sex couples the opportunity to obtain the designation of marriage will not impinge upon the religious freedom of any religious organization, official, or any other person; no religion will be required to change its religious policies or practices with regard to same-sex couples, and no religious officiant will be required to solemnize a marriage in contravention of his or her religious beliefs. (Cal. Const., art. I & 4.) -- in re MARRIAGE CASES, S147999, page 117"

*

Clearly, self-styled legal "expert" Matt Staver and those like him who are deliberately using scare tactics to dupe the ignorant and uninformed and are LIARS - not to mention false Christians. But then, what else is new with these folks.

*

Meanwhile, Christian allies of gay rights continue to begin to speak out more loudly against the anti-gay Christianists. Here are some highlights from the San Jose Mercury News:

*

The Santa Clara County Council of Churches, on behalf of 23 churches, recently paid $10,500 to run ads in the Mercury News opposing Proposition 8. The council set up a separate committee to place the ad, to not run afoul the IRS.

*
"One part of Christianity has become very vocal and very talented in using the press," said the Rev. Michael Patrick Ellard, senior minister of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Jose and an organizer of the effort. "What's starting to happen is the other part of Christianity is waking up and saying, 'Wait a minute, you're trying to speak for all of us.' "

*
Mixon said the state should protect civil rights and civil contracts like marriage, while the church should be blessing and supporting all manner of loving relationships and families. "I just said, 'Where would Jesus be on this?' " Mixon said. "It's pretty clear to me where he'd be. He'd be in support of anybody who was trying to create loving, caring, compassionate relationships."