In a response to increased attacks from the McCain camp, the Obama team are making a major push to revive talk of Senator McCain’s involvement as part of the ‘Keating Five’ with the launch of KeatingEconomics.com. A 13 minute documentary on McCain’s involvement will be available at noon eastern time today and reports suggest Obama surrogates will be talking about McCain’s involvement today in radio and TV interviews.
The Associated Press is reporting that a rally to be held for Sarah Palin has been moved to the Pensacola Civic Center, a 10,000 seat arena because of overwhelming demand. It had been scheduled for the Pensacola Aviation Center.
In my quick opinion the McCain camp needs to do two things simultaneously if it has any chance of winning and both need to work 100% or he will most definitely see defeat.
The first is to destroy the credibility and the excitement over Barack Obama. He did it once already, airing ads about his celebrity in a time when Obama was recovering from a failed trip to Europe and a grandiose convention speech that was lost in the shuffle of Sarah Palin. There is plenty of doubt to be sowed into the hearts and minds of independent voters, especially those who border life between rural and urban areas. I watched a bevy of pundits disagree on this point today so I am definitely not jumping about the consensus on this one but I am as sure as anything that a peacemaker campaign, like the one he tried waging during the start of this financial slide, just won’t work.
Second, McCain has to build confidence in his ability to manage the economy. Simple attacks won’t work this election, not with so much of our financial future on the line. McCain faces a political reality that isn’t fair but its true. Regardless of how we as a nation got into this mess, the party caught holding the beg is going to be responsible, that is how things work.
While it is true not every Democrat was behind the failures in Clinton’s first term as president, they all suffered in the 1994 elections.
While it is not true that Al Gore had any part in Clinton’s philandering, he held the tarnished mantel Clinton passed down. So too is this true in the current election with Republicans who will most certainly pay for eight years of George Bush.
Following media reports, including one from Newsweek, alleging the Obama campaign might be accepting campaign contributions from foreign and fraudulent sources, the RNC will reportedly file an official complaint with the FEC. The complaint will seek an audit of Obama’s funds.
Consider the cases of Obama donors “Doodad Pro” of Nunda, N.Y., who gave $17,130, and “Good Will” of Austin, Texas, who gave more than $11,000—both in excess of the $2,300-per-person federal limit. In two recent letters to the Obama campaign, Federal Election Commission auditors flagged those (and other) donors and informed the campaign that the sums had to be returned. Neither name had ever been publicly reported because both individuals made online donations in $10 and $25 increments. “Good Will” listed his employer as “Loving” and his occupation as “You,” while supplying as his address 1015 Norwood Park Boulevard, which is shared by the Austin nonprofit Goodwill Industries. Suzanha Burmeister, marketing director for Goodwill, said the group had “no clue” who the donor was. She added, however, that the group had received five puzzling thank-you letters from the Obama campaign this year, prompting it to send the campaign an e-mail in September pointing out the apparent fraudulent use of its name.
After a shift away from health care reform as an issue in the race Barack Obama brought the issue back to the forefront of his campaign today. From the Associated Press:
He devoted at least half his speech to criticizing McCain. The Republican nominee has proposed to tax the health benefits that 156 million people get through the workplace as income. In exchange, McCain would give tax credits to help pay for insurance — $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families, paid directly to the insurer they choose.
The criticisms that Obama made here are echoed by his campaign in four new television ads, four separate mailers targeted to swing state voters, radio commercials and events in every battleground state.
“On health care, John McCain promises a tax credit,” an announcer says in one of Obama’s new ads, over images of families examining their bills. “But here’s what he won’t tell you: McCain would make you pay taxes on your health benefits, taxing your health care for the first time ever, raising costs for employers who offer health care so your coverage could be reduced or dropped completely. You won’t find one word about it on his Web site.”
While John McCain spends the weekend in Arizona preparing for Tuesday’s debate, Governor Palin, fresh off her own debate, went on the offensive linking Senator Obama to 60’s radical and domestic terrorist William Ayres. Saying Obama is “palling around with terrorists”. Palin also said about Obama “This is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.”
“There’s been a lot of interest in what I read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago. Turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to The New York Times, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol,’” Palin said today, according to a transcript distributed by the campaign. “These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes. This is not a man who sees America as you and I do — as the greatest force for good in the world.
The Obama campaign responded by saying:
Governor Palin’s comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign’s statement this morning that they would be launching Swift boat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation’s economic ills. In fact, the very newspaper story Governor Palin cited in hurling her shameless attack made clear that Senator Obama is not close to Bill Ayers, much less “pals,” and that he has strongly condemned the despicable acts Ayers committed 40 years ago, when Obama was eight. What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy.
I was about an hour behind because of babysitting but I finished and watched a couple minutes of analysis. Just wanted to throw my thoughts in.
1) It was embarrassing watching CNN before hand. The station spent the half hour I saw bashing Sarah Palin in every single way and ignoring Joe Biden.
2) Palin did fine, no major gaffes, she may well have reassured some people. Those that don’t like her never will.
3) Biden obviously “won” in that he is a much better debator. I believe you don’t grade on a curve in these things. Doesn’t matter how much experience a person has, doesn’t matter what they look like. Its a performance.
So in that, Biden wins hands down, knows the subjects, knows how to handle himself, clear winner in terms of the actual debate.
4) Tomorrow the media which seems more even tonight toward Palin will go right back to attacking her.
Article 1 of the Constitution does not, in fact, define the role of the Vice President of the United States. It defines the role of the legislative branch, otherwise known as the branch in which Joe Biden has served for the last 36 years.
One thing stood out to me when Joe Biden was discussing the Vice Presidency and the powers it contains in relation to Vice President Dick Cheney’s position on the office. He said:
BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.
He added:
The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.
For those not following, the basic notion attributed to Cheney here is that the Vice President occupies a role as president of the Senate and has a vote when there is a tie. Therefore Cheney argues, the VP is not a part of the Executive Branch.
While I am not going to argue in favor or against Cheney’s interpretation, I found Biden’s argument against this interpretation interesting in that he said “he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch.” The problem is, Article 1 doesn’t define the Executive Branch, Article 2 does that.
