Tag: 2008 elections

    Harmful If Swallowed

On the heels of his ad mocking Barack Obama as a Messiah-like figure, John McCain has now anointed himself as “The One.”

This new ad declares that “Washington’s broken” and “John McCain knows it.” He admits that “We’re worse off than we were four years ago.” But without acknowledging the brazen hypocrisy, the ad asserts that McCain is “the only” candidate who can fix our broken nation. Then he goes further to seriously describe himself in the same manner he had sarcastically portrayed Obama:

“One is ready to lead – McCain”

According to Yahoo News, Barack Obama backed away from an earlier challenge from McCain to debate.

WASHINGTON – Democratic candidate Barack Obama on Saturday backed away from rival John McCain’s challenge for a series of joint appearances, agreeing only to the standard three debates in the fall.

In May, when a McCain adviser proposed a series of pre-convention appearances at town hall meetings, Obama said, “I think that’s a great idea.” In summer stumping on the campaign trail, McCain has often noted that Obama had not followed through and joined him in any events.

Obama’s reversal on town hall debates is part of a play-it-safe strategy he’s adopted since claiming the nomination and grabbing a lead in national polls. Advisers to the Illinois senator, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss strategy, say Obama is reluctant to take chances or give McCain a high-profile stage now that Obama’s the front-runner.

This is just plain unacceptable.  Obama’s crafty enough to know that whether you’re playing chess or political games, sometimes you have to risk losing in order to win.  Other times you simply need to make a move.  It’s another lost opportunity, for it represented a chance for a gifted orator to show up an opponent who can’t even display publicly an understanding of his own policy proposals.

No wonder the Democrat can’t close the gap.  This was the latest round in a political game of chicken, and Obama swerved when he should have remained steady.  If he’s going to remain this timid, the media is going to help McCain walk all over him by November.

There’s got to be something we can do about this.

Original article by Shane Jones via Socialist Appeal.

After years of Bush’s open-ended war on working people at home and abroad, many on the “left” are desperate for an alternative. For many, that alternative is Barack Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois. Obama, who is very careful with his words and actions, has done a good job so far of portraying himself as a “sensible progressive”.  However, far from being a “progressive” alternative, Obama is at his core a typical representative of the bosses’ political parties. Despite presenting himself as a candidate of “change”, Obama is a defender of capitalism and imperialism, and hence of exploitation and oppression. On all fundamentals, he is far closer to Bush than he is to being a genuine alternative for working people.

Much commentary today on the increasingly “nasty” turn of McShame’s candidacy.

Several bloggers have suggested that Obama must strike back hard against this negative campaign, citing Dukakis’ and Kerry’s failure to do so in prior campaigns.  I disagree.

This candidacy is distinguishable from the others.  Here, the electorate is already energized based on the economy and the war (which, leaving aside morality issues, are ultimately the same issue–the economy is bad because of the war).  McShame is turning to a nasty campaign very early.  Why?  Because he doesn’t have much to run on:  any time he is asked to detail his plans he falls apart in a shambles because his plans are unreal and unrealistic.  Continued spending with no source, no workable plan on the economy.

The problem with an early nasty campaign is that, after awhile, it is ineffective and makes the party doing it appear to be just nasty.  At some point, someone’s going to ask:  “well and good, Sir, but what is your plan?”  Even more scary:  “how will work?”

McShame’s campaign is egregiously bad and laughable.  As it is a joke, Obama is correct to laugh it off, at least until some substantive attack is made.

Speaking as a veteran, I cannot see how or why Candidate McCain considers himself commander-in-chief material purely because he is a veteran

… or because Hanoi on his resume somehow instilled in him commander-in-chief ability.

Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for president, and because this is a crucial election year it is only natural for Democrats to try to win over progressives — especially the disaffected variety turned off by your candidate’s hard right turns.  If you plan to do this, choosing to ignore Obama’s strategy of pandering to right-wing and bigot voters who’ll never cast ballots for him, good for you.  But there are a few tips you’ll want to keep in mind as you venture forth.

1.) Whatever you do, don’t threaten people with a McCain victory if they don’t vote for Obama.  For one thing, people don’t like to be threatened; for another, if a voter isn’t convinced that your candidate will govern any better than McCain, it’s a fairly useless thing to do anyway.  It’s best if you avoid doing this altogether.

2.) Whatever you do, do NOT bash Ralph Nader or any third party candidate.  Criticize if you will, but do NOT attack.  The reason for this is that true progressives, while partisan in a broader ideological sense, are not so in terms of supporting specific political parties.  More often than not, we vote for individual candidates who have the records to back up their rhetoric than we are to vote along party lines.  If you must criticize Ralph Nader, focus on this argument: “it takes an organized political party to win power, starting from the ground and working up, and though I respect Ralph I don’t think he’s going about this the right way.”  Don’t mention ego or stealing Democratic votes (ballots belong to no political party), even if that’s what you think, because neither argument is true and it has a tendency to turn people off who might otherwise consider your candidate.

3.) Listen to what people’s concerns.  Remember, Obama is running as the pseudo-change candidate.  Even if true progressives feel compelled to vote for him out of misguided notions of pragmatism, they still care about the issues that matter.  Don’t brush them off or try to convince them that once Obama is elected they needn’t worry, because they have every reason to worry.  Don’t be condescending; listen to people.

4.) Finally, talk about the issues, know them by heart, and have solid responses to questions — especially those coming from Nader or McKinney supporters.  Obama MUST be able to address their concerns.  If he can’t, and if you can’t, you’re better off not bothering.

That’s pretty much it.  If you follow these steps, you might succeed in swaying a few progressives.  If not, don’t complain when you receive the proverbial cold shoulder.

In 1967, John McCain was shot out of the North Vietnamese sky, crash landed in a lake, taken prisoner, and held in captivity for … 41 years, so far.

No one can dismiss the unimaginable agony of enduring six years in an enemy prisoner of war camp. It is surely a brutal experience both physically and mentally. It is the sort of experience that never leaves you and, indeed, it seems never to have left John McCain. His entire post-POW frame of reference is shaped by what he went through, and also by what he missed as a consequence of his incarceration.