Keith Olbermann "Special Comment" On Divisive Politics

Well, hello Charles Keating!! Obama's got game!

Folks have been running around as Senator Country Last has been posturing about this ' so-called' honor of his.

Why isn't Obama hitting on this? Why isn't Obama hitting on that?

So, as we get indications from Senator Country Last that his campaign is about to go Birth of a Nation-2008, up in here, we wondered where is the Obama response?

Well, here it is:

KEATINGECONOMICS.COM

You can find downloadable documents and other useful information at the above website (homepage for the documentary). Watch the full 13 minute video below.



KAPOW!!

Who Were The Keating Five? See here.

And, here are two other sites for reference:

1. JohnMcCainRecord.com

2. McLobbyist.com: John McCain and Sarah Palin - bought and sold to you by lobbyists

John McCain doesn't care if your Kindergartner is molested

What other conclusion can I come to, as the McCain campaign releases this ad:

Here is the video of the Ad.

Backstory:

In essence, Obama supported "age appropriate" sex-education for children as a means of teaching them what was proper or inproper touching, as well as to protect them against pedophiles, his campaign has said. Used in the context of the McCain campaign ad, however, Obama's stance becomes another one of those cultural issues that seems designed to alienate the Illinois Democrat from more socially moderate voters.

And very quickly, the Obama campaign came out with a hard hitting response, pointing to a series of education accomplishments made by Obama, and calling McCain "perverse" for the latest attack.

"It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls - a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Senator Straight Talk Didn't Catch The Michelle Obama Slam

From Politico.com:

June 14, 2008
Categories: McCain

McCain doesn't pick up on Michelle Obama joke


So a man finally got a question into McCain and he had a very different sort of question.

The questioner noted that he had been educated at Princeton and Harvard and made more than $300,000 a year.

"How can I be proud of my country?" he asked.

Get it — he was mocking Michelle Obama and her statement earlier this year that her husband had for the first time in her life made her proud of her country.

Well, McCain either missed the joke or decided to ignore it and answer the question literally. I think it was the former because the individual asking the question had a thick accent that sounded to be either Indian or Pakistani, perhaps suggesting to McCain a recent immigrant grappling with America's image abroad.

"I’ll admit to you that it’s tough, it’s tough in some respects," McCain said, seeming to lend credence to Michelle Obama's observation.

McCain said America needed to be "more humble, more inclusive."

He observed that one of the ways to be proud of the country was to look at our history — and the sacrifices U.S. troops have made abroad.

McCain let his questioner follow up and the individual repeated, but didn't clarify, his line.

In closing, McCain said he was proud of America in part "because of you and what you've been able to achieve and accomplish."

Martin calls it a 'joke'. I don't, but Senator Straight Talk not 'getting it' IS the joke.

Obama Sets Up Own Anti-Smear Site

In order to fight the Swiftboating lies, Obama has created a new site:

FIGHT THE SMEARS

Good to be PRO-ACTIVE.

Spread the word about this site. Someone tells you about something false about Obama, send them to this site.

Blog Alert: Michelle Obama Watch

Gina M of What About Our Daughters is at it again - thank goodness.

When discussing the infamous Michelle tape at WAOD, Gina had the following observation:

Volunteer Michelle Media Monitors

This whole infamous tape stuff is just a sliver of what Michelle Obama is going to face in the media. So because I predict getting a flurry of emails from now until November, I am going to be proactive and start a separate Michelle Obama blog to track every article, blog post, youtube clip that pops up and provide you an opportunity to respond. Because if the past is any indicator, the campaign has no problem with her being turned into a verbal punching bag, I DO! IF you want to volunteer and want to post updates on the blog, send an email to the gmail account in the right sidebar. Its going to be a LONG hot SUMMER!

Whether you support her husband or not. Let's be clear, any and every Black woman that walks in her footsteps can expect the same treatment so we might as well pull a Gandolf, draw a line in the stand and yell "THOU SHALL NOT PASS!" This ain't about Barack, its about every professional Black woman that has had to smile on the days she didn't want to for fear of being labeled ANGRY.

Gina kept her word, and has now created Michelle Obama Watch.


I know there are many here at Mirror On America who form that protective circle around Michelle, so I thought I would spread the word.

Obama & The Right Wing: Is it All About Race, Or Not?

I enjoy surfing the net to find interesting articles, and I came upon one that I thought was pretty good. I don't know if I completely agree, but it has its merits.

This is from Brian Francis at PoliticalInaction.com, and I yield the floor to him:

Saturday, March 22, 2008
All About Religion NOT Really About Race

In the wake of the pastor Wright faux-controversy....the guy said some crazy stuff, but he is preacher and it wasn't uttered or affirmed by Obama....I think that we on the left need to determine and investigate The Right's motivations for pushing the Wright storyline. In the era of dog whistle and just the surface media coverage, every network and even the major papers have called this a problem of race. That Obama goes to a black church with a black pastor and they discuss black issues and America isn't ready for this. America is taken aback by what these black people say in their churches. Do they hate America? Do they really believe that America is a bad place....etc., etc. It is all utter non-sense.

They have a total of 60 seconds, or there about, of Wright saying some very crazy and off the wall things...and they were crazy. Obama has said he believes what Wright said is reprehensible and he doesn't agree with it, as well as he doesn't believe or support a lot of Wright's political views. Obama had to give a major, and brilliant, speech on race on Tuesday about this issue because of how bad the media coverage has been of this issue. Obama distanced but didn't disown Wright or leave the church. He had to do this to try and ease the fears of working class white people. To that end, by the end of the week, the media coverage in the papers and most of the network news casts had shifted...but not Fox News and Right Wing Radio. The clips of Wright continue to play endlessly on Fox News and Right Wing Radio. "How can a man be trusted who goes to that church?" they're saying. "What, exactly, does Barack Obama believe?" followed by "What kind of Christian is Barack Obama, anyway?"

The Right is assuredly happy as hell to use race against Obama. They were going to do it with or without Wright. The Right is happy as hell to use patriotism against Obama. The Right desires to portray Obama as less American, and they would have done this regardless of Wright because of the lapel pin and pledge controversies they already created. But what they have never attacked until Wright, and what they fear the most, is Obama's Christianity. This is why the Muslim smears started the moment he entered the race in February 2007. The Right is deathly afraid of Barack Obama, not because he is a liberal, not because of his policies, not because of his race, but because of his religion, and his ability to recast the democratic party as faith-friendly. Barack Obama threatens the stranglehold that The Right has on the moral high ground in this country...a stranglehold they achieved by portraying the left as hostile to religious freedom, religious values, and the institution of religion. They have used this moral high ground to stack courts and school boards, as well as get us into an ill conceived war, which McCain's spiritual adviser says will help bring about Judgment Day. The left has been openly hostile to Christianity in many ways...which plays directly into The Right's hands and perpetuates this cycle and the same old arguments/divisions about morals in this country.

Some on the left are uncomfortable with Obama's Christianity. It makes them suspicious of him because of the abortion and gay marriage battles of the past, as well as how religion has been used to demonize liberals and the left. But 80% of Americans call themselves Christian, and just because you disagree with the fringe/fanatic elements of the Christian religion, who seem to dominate the discourse on The Right, doesn't mean you antagonize, nor write off, this electorate. It is bad marketing and just plain dumb to ascribe the views of the far far right of the Christian religion to Christians as a whole. The most reliable bloc of democratic voters, black people, have some of the highest proportions of Christianity in the country. It is a mistake to discount those who call themselves Christian because the views/statements of others. We can't argue on one hand say that you can't demonize Obama for pastor Wright's views/statements, but then say all Christians are intolerant because 10% of the Christians on the right make intolerant and inflammatory statements...READ: Hagee, Robertson, Dobson. That makes us no better than Fox News, Right Wing Radio, and The Right. I'm not trying to say that democrats should all the sudden find religion and tailoring their message, as that would be empty and easily spotted by Christians. What I'm saying is that if we have a candidate that can cast the widest net possible, and break open the electorate in ways that bring new groups with widely ranging, and some diametrically opposing, views together, we as democrats should embrace that as it will be good for the party's long term health as well as improve Democratic performance in election after election yet to come.

Barack Obama means the end of The Right's dominance in the religious arena. He is the first openly and unapologetically Christian democrat on a national level. He refuses to run from his Christian faith. He speaks the language of the Christians who have ushered in Republican dominance in the south and in the swing states like Ohio and Missouri. By using the Christians and issues like gay marriage and abortion, Republicans employing Rovian tactics have won election after election, not on real issues like healthcare, the economy, trade, energy, etc., but on social issues. We all know the terms: west-coast liberalism....liberal morals....San Francisco morals. Liberalism became a dirty word because of spineless democrats as well as The Right's successful campaign to make the cause of every controversial issue a social and religious issue. Liberals are cast as hating religion and being amoral. Christians on the right actually fear that democrats, if in power, will take away their right to worship freely. This is how successful The Right has been.

But Obama represents the convergence of two things in politics: Obama's unique abilities to inspire which we all know are unparalleled in recent memory and talk the language of Christians but also the fact that Christians aren't getting what they voted for when they voted for The Right. To quote pastor Wright..."The chickens are coming home to roost". The issues Christians on The Right have with their own party, not taking into account Iraq, the economy, and issues that affect everyone, are threefold in my estimation(these affect everyone too): Ethics; Conservatism; Poverty and Hate. These three issues represent things Christians thought they were voting for but have been disappointed by The Right at every turn. If a candidate comes around who can recast the democratic party as Christian-friendly, this large voting bloc is back up for grabs. Obviously, there will be certain Christians who demagogue the left for everything and will never be convinced that the democrats are faith-friendly, but the people who are fed up with the issues below are listening.

Ethics:

Corruption scandals like Tom Delay

Sex scandals like Larry Craig and Senator Vitter

Lying to the American people about Iraq and other issues
Torture
Hypocrisy

Conservatism:

Christians are by nature conservative...they avoid excess and waste
The budget and spending and debt are enormous and have increased exponentially under Republican leadership of the Senate, House, and White House
Conservative principals have been trampled on with regard to energy as well as individual rights

Poverty and Hate:

The Christian faith prides itself on helping those in need....Katrina, Healthcare, The Poor, etc. all have shown The Right to manage the country contrary to these principles.

Believe it or not, Christians on the right don't want to hate democrats. They're just as sick of the infighting and the division as we are.


All of these issues make this key electorate ripe for the picking. All it takes is the right candidate to speak their language and crystallize what they're already feeling as issues that democrats care about and will manage the country by. Not to demonize them as fanatics, as democrats do with ease, but to say we disagree on gay marriage/rights and abortion, but here is where we do agree.

John McCain is also an issue here which leads to The Right's motivation to push the Wright storyline. He is viewed as a hypocrite and Christians on the right are deeply skeptical of him. Back in 2000 he was openly critical of them. Now, he is seeking them out. They don't trust him.

So to recap, The Right recognizes their base of Christian voters is getting jittery because of their nominee and the Republican track record of conduct and management. Barack Obama, to them, represents a real threat to make Christians on the right question their unflailing commitment to the Republican party. So why push Wright? Because it makes Obama look like a fanatical Christian and not part of mainstream Christianity. They are trying to diminish his Christian credentials. They are trying to suggest, clip after clip, segment after segment, that he isn't really Christian like you but part of some American-hating fringe religion. They will continue to remind the American Christian populace over and over and over that Obama is a Christian, but not a real one and certainly not one you can trust. His church hates America, and by extension that means he does too. You CANNOT trust Barack Obama.

No one doubts Obama's ability to speak to the majority of Americans on complicated issue and at least get them to listen. Fully 70% of people thought he gave a good speech on Tuesday on race and that he sufficiently explained his relationship with his pastor. The remaining 30% of people split between not likely to vote for him to more likely to vote for him. I highlight this to say with the hottest of political potatoes, Obama threaded the needle and pulled it off. Now imagine him talking about issues that Christians care about...poverty, ethics, coming together, and not wasting tax payer money or intruded into people's personal lives. A common quote you hear from Christians and Republicans in general is that they feel when Obama speaks he doesn't hate them for their views...which is the feeling they always got from democrats and why they aligned with The Right. So here comes an intelligent, unthreatening, Christian democratic leader who is going to speak to them using speeches sprinkled with bible quotes and reframe Left v. Right issues in terms of Right v. Wrong issues. Given that, you can see why The Right has an interest in making Obama as threatening as possible, either as a black man who may be a Christian, but who hates you and America.

The right is deathly afraid of Barack Obama, and they're only hope for survival in November, at the presidential and in each of the down ticket contests, is to make him as unpalatable as possible to Christians on the right. They are trying to protect they're flank. The question is will they succeed?

posted by Brian Francis at Saturday, March 22, 2008

Agree? Disagree?

Well, I think he sees in Obama what Andrew Sullivan does:

I have never felt more convinced that this man's candidacy - not this man, his candidacy - and what he can bring us to achieve - is an historic opportunity. This was a testing; and he did not merely pass it by uttering safe bromides. He addressed the intimate, painful love he has for an imperfect and sometimes embittered man. And how that love enables him to see that man's faults and pain as well as his promise. This is what my faith is about. It is what the Gospels are about. This is a candidate who does not merely speak as a Christian. He acts like a Christian.

From David Kuo:

One of the biggest problems in modern American Christianity is the "church-hopping" phenomenon. People stay in churches for a certain period of time, get bored, find someplace new and repeat.
......................................................................

We've had this discussion with two of our dear friends who are also part of the church. They understand the issues but they have taken a different approach. They have jumped into the middle of the church. This church, they've said, is their home. And the Bible, they say, calls them to be vibrant, vital parts of their church home, not people hovering on the outside.

They are right. Our church isn't perfect. No church is. But it is our spiritual home and we are blessed by it and we understand our job isn't to take and take and take from it but to give and give and give.

Barack Obama understands this approach. That is why he didn't just rip the church wily nilly. Lots of American Christians should use his faithfulness to his church as an example in their own lives.

He didn't forego his spiritual home for political convenience. Whether or not that is good politics is yet to be seen. That it is good spiritually should be applauded.

Clintons Using Wright to Hurt Obama

While nobody should be surprised, just trying to keep folks informed.

Hat tips: poster at JJP and DailyKos

Here are three articles of note:

Yes, Clinton Campaign Is Pushing The Wright Story

Clinton Doesn’t Deny Campaign is Pushing Wright Story to Superdelegates

Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination


I'm only going to point this out....how do I put this.....not that the Clintons care, but the Democratic Party should....Black folk aren't going to take too kindly to using a Minister that is revered against Obama. Silly me....what am I thinking.....they can win those Blue Midwestern and Eastern states without Blue cities, right, and the Black voters that live there? I forgot. Hillary's found a new group of Democrats to vote in those Blue states...

Just in case you thought Kerrey's apology MEANT ANYTHING

Here is Bob Kerrey's insincere apology to Barack Obama:

Dear Barack,

I want to sincerely apologize for the remarks I made on Sunday in Council Bluffs, Iowa, after an event at which I endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton's Presidential candidacy. I answered a question about your qualifications to be President in a way that has been interpreted as a backhanded insult of you. I assure you I meant to do just the opposite.

After you and I met during your primary campaign for the Senate, I wrote a public letter in which I said that that you were among the two or three most talented people I have ever met in politics. Nothing in your performance in the Senate or your campaign for the Presidency has altered that view.

The question I was asked in Iowa on Sunday was something like this: "Senator Kerrey, you ran for President in your first term in the Senate. If you were qualified, why isn't Senator Obama?" With the benefit of my computer's capacity to make certain that my words reflect my belief let me answer that question in this letter which you are free to use anyway you choose.

You are exceptionally qualified by experience and judgment to be President of the United States. I do not doubt that you would use the power of the Presidency to bring peace and prosperity to as many people as possible on our fragile planet. You inspire my highest hopes for that office's potential: That it be used as a force for good in America and the world.

It is your capacity to inspire hope that is your greatest God given talent. Without spending a dime of tax payer's money or changing a single law your presence in the Oval Office will send a clear and compelling message to four groups of people who will be altered for good as a consequence. That was what I was trying to say on Sunday and what I hope I said more clearly in this letter.

Again, I am sorry for the insult and wish you the best on January 3 and beyond.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Respectfully yours,

Bob Kerrey

Here you go- proof that it's not worth spit:


Clinton Launches Obama Attack Web Sites

ABC News has learned that the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has registered the names of two Web sites with the express goal of attacking her chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

It's the first time this election cycle a presidential campaign has launched a Web site with the express purpose of of launching serious criticisms on a rival.

And, just to sum it all up for the readers, especially those who stand there, and go, ' you Obama folks are just ' too sensitive', a reader of Andrew Sullivan's summed it up quite well:

So far this month Mrs. Clinton has "apologized" for two Iowa county volunteer coordinators' forwarding Obama-is-a-Muslim emails; Bill Shaheen does the Obama-is-a-druggie routine; Howard Wolfson goes on national TV and repeats it; Bill Clinton says we're "rolling the dice" with Obama, and now Kerrey is "apologizing" for his Obama-went-to-a-Madrassa remarks. This many events in a three-week span indicate a coherent plan. If one accepts Mrs. Clinton's explanations that these events are not what they obviously are, then the only other explanation would seem to be that she cannot control her campaign staff. That seems fairly incompetent leadership for someone who claims to be ready to lead on day one.

Like I've said before....ISOLATED incidents can only be qualified as such, when they remain ISOLATED. When they stop being ISOLATED and begin to form a PATTERN, then accept the PATTERN and what it tells you.

The Southern Strategy, and its racist underbelly, is all the same, whether used in Mississippi & Georgia, or in this case, IOWA AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.



RELATED ARTICLES:
Clinton Acolytes' Racist Attacks
The Real Race Card




Cross-posted at BrownIowa.

Obama 'Willie Horton' Watch - Back to the Muslim Smear Today

From Marc Ambinder:

Speaking on CNN tonight:

BOB KERREY: "It's something by the way I have told Barack Obama when I've met with him. It something that I've spoken about before. So this is not something that just sort of came out of the head birth out there in Iowa. I've thought about it a great deal. I've watched the blogs try to say that you can't trust him because he spent a little bit of time in a secular madrassa. I feel quite the opposite. I feel it's a tremendous strength whether he is in the United States Senate or whether he's in the White House, I think it's a tremendous asset for him.

Ahem.

You can be naive if you want to be. But then, I'll be telling you that you're a fool. It's all part of a coordinated effort. Remember now, not one, but TWO people have had to quit for spreading the Madrassa LIE in the Clinton campaign. And now, they have Kerrey talking about it.

If you can't see a hit job when it's in front of your face, then I feel bad for you. It's marching orders from Hillary and Company.


Cross-posted at BrownIowa