CNN Flash Poll: Obama won 54% - 30%

CNN announced the results of their flash poll. "54% of debate watchers say Obama did the best job; 30% say McCain."

Obama's favorability rating also improved from 60% to 64%. Read the rest of this post...

McCain refuses Obama's handshake after the debate

OMG

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UPDATED: CBS Poll: Obama won uncommitteds 40% - 26%

CBS snap poll is good for Obama:

Forty percent of the 516 uncommitted voters surveyed identified Barack Obama as tonight's winner; 26 percent said John McCain won, while 34 percent saw the debate as a draw.

After the debate, 68 percent of uncommitted voters said that they think Obama will make the right decisions on the economy, compared to 55 percent who said that before the debate. Fewer thought McCain would do so – 48 percent after the debate, and 41 percent before.

An earlier version had the number at 39% - 27%. I'll take the new numbers. Read the rest of this post...

"That one"

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McCain left. Obama is still on stage meeting the crowd, and McCain just got up and left.

WTF? C-Span is still showing it, it's downright weird. Why wouldn't McCain stay and meet the crowd? We think he may have been so pissed off that he just had to leave. Wow.

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Obama won, hands down

Rob, Joe and I agree, there is no question that Obama won tonight. He was smart, measured, and presidential. He presented details when details were called for, and cut down McCain politely and devastatingly when the situation demanded (I'm beyond impressed with Obama's ability to criticize McCain in a manner that doesn't come across as negative). McCain was cranky and bitchy. He was wooden and uncomfortable. McCain was his vintage self - nasty, nasty, nasty. Calling Obama "that one"? That's the most memorable line of the evening, and it was condescending, and I suspect some may find it racially tinged as well. The second most memorable was McCain mocking Joe Biden's hair plugs. What? That's just deranged, and it shows the depth of McCain's inner anger. McCain is simply not a stable individual. He's a very angry man, and he showed that tonight. Every time he tried going negative on Obama he did it in such a heavy handed way that it blew up on him. I was one who thought the first debate was a tie. This one Obama won, hands down. McCain needed to shake things up. He not only did NOT shake things up, he came off across as a nasty nasty man. Obama came across as our next president. McCain is 1998, Obama is 2008.

UPDATE from Joe: Well, my mother called. She said Obama won...and she was watching the post-debate chatter on CNN where even the Republican analysts think Obama won.

UPDATE: A number of people have noted that Obama and his wife are hanging out shaking hands, meeting the audience, while McCain basically ran of the stage and is gone. I'm watching live, Obama is still there. Where is McCain? wow, he must have been pissed. Read the rest of this post...

Obama campaign: "A resounding victory"

Got this via email from the Obama Campaign. They're pretty happy tonight:

“Barack Obama won a resounding victory in John McCain’s favorite debate format because he made the case for change that will rebuild the middle class. The American people asked tough questions tonight, and only Barack Obama was in touch with their struggles and offered clear and passionate answers about creating jobs, reducing health care costs, cutting taxes for 95% of working families, and responsibly ending the war in Iraq. John McCain was all over the map on the issues, and he is so angry about the state of his campaign that he referred to Barack Obama as ‘that one’ – last time he couldn’t look at Senator Obama, this time he couldn’t say his name. The McCain campaign said, ‘if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose,’ and John McCain definitely lost tonight,” said Obama-Biden campaign manager David Plouffe.

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Debate Open Thread

All three of us agree, Obama won. "Couldn't have been better," Rob says.

10:34PM From John: McCain looks old. Much older than he's looked to date. This format did not help him in that regard.

10:32 PM From Joe: John Sidney McCain III gets the same question...(As the son of an admiral, he didn't have quite the same upbringing as Obama.) He looks old tonight. He's served the country for many, many years.

10:32 PM From Joe: Last question "What don't you know and how will you learn it?" It's never the challenges you expect, it's the challenges you don't. Obama works his personal story into this question. Finishes strong.

10:28 PM From Joe: Just got a message from a friend who said "McCain looks like a rabid animal roaming the stage."

10:26PM Note from John: We're 45 seconds into the question and McCain has still not said that he would defend Israel. Then again, his own running mate cavorts with a fringe Alaskan political party that had ties to Iran, and has a growing anti-Semitic record, so perhaps that's why.

10:24PM: Is Russia the evil empire again? McCain: (Creepy smile) "Maybe, heh heh heh heh heh."

10:22 PM: McCain loves to talk about the Russia/Georgia situation. You recall that he thinks the war between Georgia and Russis was "the first, probably, serious crisis internationally since the end of the cold war"

10:20 PM From Joe: McCain just had to admit that Obama was right on Afghanistan strategy. He's sounding more testy as the night wears on. Tough night when he as to try to explain away the "bomb, bomb Iran" comment.

10:17PM The "that one" video is up:



10:15 PM: McCain says he knows how to get Osama, but he's not going to telegraph it? Uh, excuse me, why don't you tell President Bush if you know how to get Osama? This is criminally negligent if true.

10:15 PM From Joe: McCain just can't get over this one. Obama has outsmarted him on the Pakistan question. Obama looks stronger than McCain on the issue of al Qaeda. And, good move by Obama to insist on a follow up to this up. Obama: Let me make it clear, I will take out Bin Laden....invokes Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran...not an example of speaking softly. THAT was amazing.

10:06PM From John: McCain: Obama would have gotten us out of Iraq, I want us to stay! Weeeeeeeeee

10:04 PM From Joe: Wow. That was Obama's best answer of the night, responding to the national security question. He nailed it. Nailed it.

10:01 PM From Joe: On to foreign policy, after another bitchy comment from McCain. Brokaw is certainly doing his best to indulge McCain. (But that is part of Brokaw's job at NBC.) McCain's first answer is pretty rambling. Says Obama doesn't understand national security challenges. Obama blows that one away.

9:58 PM From Joe: Obama thinks health care is a right. Smacks McCain for voting against children's health care. Crack down on insurance companies that cheat their customers...

9:55PM From John: OMG, McCain just made fun of Joe Biden for having hair plugs, on the day that Joe Biden is burying his mother-in-law. Oh my god. That was gratuitous, was a personal attack that wasn't even related to policy. That's just bizarre of McCain to do. My God. He's so angry. He can't control himself.

9:54PM Reader KN writes:

Best dumb ass line of the debate so far: "Senator Obama says it has to be safe for disposal or whatever, my friends I’ve been on ships with nuclear… and I’m fine. It’s safe.” This from the man who’s been treated for five – count em five – episodes of melanoma, not to mention other bizarre health conditions.

9:51PM From John: What was that? What did McCain just glower and hand gesture to Brokaw about while Obama was talking?

9:50 PM From Joe: McCain is all riled up and frenetic. Did he take that same herbal supplement he took last time?

9:49PM From John: THAT ONE?!!!! McCain just called Obama "that one," and pointed at him.

9:46PM Jacki here. Counting Liebermans. McCain's dropped three Liebermans so far. 2 Feingolds and 3 Liebermans.

9:44PM Let's hope Sarah Palin doesn't become president because she doesn't believe in global warming.

943PM Well thank God Brokaw is following the rules, because we wouldn't to have an actual debate here. Geez.

9:41PM Heh heh, heh heh, heh heh. [/Creepy].

9:39 PM from Joe: Best line of the night so far, "Senator McCain, the Straight Talk Express lost a wheel on that one."

936PM John McCain: "I knew Herbert Hoover. Herbert Hoover was my friend..."

9:36 PM From Joe: McCain doesn't know how to do negative. It comes off as nasty.

9:33 PM From Rob: When Obama went into his discussion about saving energy the dial meters on CNN went from neutral to positive - the American people are looking for a president to ask something of them and Obama's bringing that. McCain is saying we can do it all - which we've seen over the last 8 years we can't.

9:29PM Note from John: We're getting reports that McCain's weird eye malady is back, he's reportedly blinking incorrectly, eyes blinking at different rates. Anyone notice?

9:28 PM From Joe: Anyone else notice the irony that McCain got the first internet question from a 78 year old woman. She's older than McCain but knows how to use the internets.

9:28 PM: From Joe: Obama gives a kick ass answer on the question about priorities.

9:23 PM From Rob: Watching the dial meters on CNN. So far, McCain's answers aren't hitting very hard. As McCain attacks Obama, his numbers go neutral to negative. Not a good night so far for McCain on the uncommitted Ohio voters.

9:21PM From John. Keating, Keating, Keating, Keating, Keating.

9:19 PM From Joe: Another question on the economy. That woman wants to know how she can trust either party. Obama responds, also gives a brief history lesson on Bush. Nobody is without blame. But, Bush is responsible. Obama is mentioning Bush's name a lot tonight, which is a very good strategy.

9:17 PM: From Joe: Watching CNN. On that last answer, Obama's numbers soared. McCain just sounds nasty. He already looks pissed.

9:15PM From John: Obama says McCain just this past March said "I'm a deregulator." McCain was NOT for reregulating. It's just not true. Obama says that McCain didn't create the Fannie Mae bill, and McCain's won staffer was a Fannie Mae lobbyist.

9:12PM from John: Obama is doing a good job of taking on McCain in a very passive, friendly, smart way. It's good. Very good. McCain just corrected the guy in the audience who called the bailout a bailout instead of a "rescue". Not sure that was the nicest thing to do.

9:10 PM From Joe: McCain's answers are rambling. And, Meg Whitman as Sec. of Treasury. She ran eBay, which announced it was laying off 10 percent of its workforce yesterday.

9:08 PM From Joe: Kind of a vague answer, from McCain on the economy. McCain just dinged Tom Brokaw, when Brokaw asked McCain who he'd appoint as Treasury Secretary.

9:07PM from John: Those are some fancy buckles on those $500 shoes, Big John.

9:06 PM From Joe: Bitchy jab from McCain about Obama showing up at a town hall meeting.

9:04 PM From Joe: First question on the economy. Obama says worst economic crisis since Depression. Final verdict on the Bush/McCain philosophy. Now, we've got to take decisive action. First step was bailout, need to make sure it works. Strong oversight, cracking down on CEOs. Middle class need a rescue package. You need someone working for you.

9:02 PM: You just heard Brokaw say people at home shouldn't be constrained...so don't be.

9:00 PM: Rob says he heard Obama is going first.

8:55 PM: Rob, John and I are all watching the debate together from one of AMERICAblog's corporate headquarters. We'll all be weighing in as the debate proceeds. But let's get the discussion started...Comment away. Read the rest of this post...

AP: McCain still member of radical group after he claims he left

AP:

The council created by retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub was the U.S. chapter of the World Anti-Communist League, an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America....

In the 1980s, McCain served on the advisory board to the U.S. chapter of an international group linked to ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America....

McCain has said he resigned from the council in 1984 and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group's letterhead....

A news article and two documents tie McCain to the council in 1985, a year after he says he resigned. The group's Internal Revenue Service filing in 1985, covering the previous year, lists McCain as a member of the council's advisory board. In October 1985, a States News Service report placed McCain, Rep. Tom Loeffler, R-Texas, and an Arizona congressman at a Washington awards ceremony staged by the council.

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McCain lied about cutting ties to extremist group linked to anti-Semites

Consider all of McCain's and Palin's past ties to anti-Semites, this is especially telling.

A few months after the group mocked Jews' "crocodile tears" over the Holocaust never happening again, McCain attends group's dinner.

McCain is a brash, arrogant, hot head. He likes to be his own man, and doesn't subscribe to the mainstream's standards of decency, respect for civil and human rights. That's why he voted against the Martin Luther King holiday. That's why he attended this despicable organization's dinner only months after it mocked Jews over the Holocaust. And that's why he lied about disassociating himself from this group in 1984, when he did no such thing.

There's a larger pattern emerging here of McCain as someone who is reckless and always looking to pick a fight - and as someone who likes to surround himself with people who pick fights first, and talk later. He's a gambler at heart, a playboy really, and all that it entails. And while the playboy/gambler/hot head is fun for the movies, it's dangerous in a president taking over during dangerous times. This isn't a Clint Eastwood movie.

From TPM Election Central:

In a much discussed story, the Associated Press reported today that John McCain served in the mid-1980s on the advisory board of a right-wing group called the Council for World Freedom, which has been controversial because of the group's aid to the Nicaraguan Contras and the presence of anti-Semites in its ranks.

Now we've gotten a hold of another fun little nugget that shows how whacked out this group really is: A newsletter from the group from July 1985 that lashed out at people who criticized Ronald Reagan for visiting the Bitburg cemetery in Germany, which includes the graves of members of the SS.

The Reagan visit was widely controversial among Jews, but the Council newsletter -- which you can view right here -- was less than charitable towards Reagan's Jewish critics.

"Those misguided souls who accused President Reagan of insensitivity for visiting the German cemetery at Bitburg are wallowing in tears of pity over the past crimes of the Nazi regime which collapsed over 40 years ago," the newsletter said. "They claim they want to keep the memory of the holocaust alive so that it can never happen again."

"Crocodile tears! It is happening again," the newsletter continues, "and again, and again, right now, in the modern world; only the crimes of today are not being perpetrated by the Nazis but by their philosophical and demoniacal soulmates, the communists."

McCain reportedly was still associating with the group a few months later: A States News Service article from October 15, 1985, found via Nexis, confirms that McCain was on hand at a Council awards dinner.

McCain told the AP that he resigned the group's advisory board in 1984, and eventually asked to have his name removed from the letterhead. But the State News Service article places him at a group dinner a year later.

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Will Brokaw Let McCain Change Subject To Ayers?

From Greg Sargent at TPM Election Central:

Senior McCain advisers have flatly declared that they want the subject of the campaign changed from the economic crisis to Barack Obama's past associations and the various things that allegedly make Obama a "risky" choice.

So the question going into tonight's debate is this: Will moderator Tom Brokaw let McCain do this? For that matter, will Brokaw himself ask about former Weatherman William Ayers?

And if the discussion does shift over to Obama's relationship with Ayers -- whether due to Brokaw's questioning or McCain's attacks -- will Brokaw play the association game fairly and ask about the Keating Five scandal?

No one is questioning Brokaw's professionalism or impartiality, but keep in mind that Brokaw has taken on a behind-the-scenes role as a kind of emissary to the McCain campaign for NBC, suggesting he may be sympathetic to the McCain team's claims that McCain has been treated unfairly by the media.

What's more, Brokaw has indicated that he may be less than sympathetic to efforts to recall McCain's role in the Keating Five scandal. He recently agreed with an assessment of the scandal as "ancient history."

Yes, well it was perhaps ancient history until John McCain's lawyer said yesterday that McCain no longer considers the Keating Five Scandal a stain on his record. In fact, McCain now thinks the Senate rebuking him was all a partisan witch hunt, and that he did nothing wrong. Read the rest of this post...

Dow tanks again, loses 5.11%

The worst news is not the falling Dow but the increasing Libor rates and frozen lending in the market. Lending is stuck and we're probably not that far away from a new rescue plan that will probably involve the government pumping money directly into the banks as has been suggested by Stiglitz and other economists. The Australians delivered a surprise rate cut today and now Europe and the US are looking at similar action. We're lucky that inflation is lower due to oil prices dropping and a strengthening dollar, though a rate cut alone isn't likely to change the dynamics of this market. If you're looking for some good news, this is about all I can find today, outside of the dollar:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 508.39, or 5.1 percent, to close at 9447.11, capping the blue-chip index's worst five-day point loss ever. The index has shed more than 1,400 points, or nearly 13 percent of its value, in the past five sessions.

A little historical factoid: 508 points is how much the Dow lost on Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987. Of course the Dow was a lot lower then, and that point value accounted for more than 20 percent of the Dow's value. Imagine that: Falling into a bear market in one day. And, if you recall, there was no big catalyst that caused that one either -- it was all fear.

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This is our moment, this is our time.

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Palin's pals in the Alaska Independence Party had ties to terrorist state Iran. Yes, Iran. The country that wants to wipe Israel off the map.

Sarah Palin and her "first dude," Todd, have unseemly ties to the Alaska Independence Party. First, here's what the AIP had to say about our "damn flag" and their "hatred for the American government":

The founder of the AIP was a man named Joe Vogler. Here's what he had to say in a 1991 interview, only a few years before Palin attended its convention: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government."

He also said this: "And I won't be buried under their damn flag. I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home."

Vogler has also said: "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."

Next, we find out that Palin's husband was a member of the fringe America-hating party for seven years, and Palin herself gave a shout-out to the party last year, praising their "good work" and asking God to bless them - keep in mind, this a party founded upon its hatred of America and our "damn flag":

Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

Now Watch Jed's video again to see the very close ties between Sarah Palin and the Alaska Independence Party (AIP):


Now, read this - the Alaska Independent Party had ties to Iran, and actively worked with Iran to embarrass the United States at the United Nations:

[AIP's founder Joe] Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.

That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.

And who is Iran? The country that wants to "destroy Israel."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel.

So much for Palin's tough talk on Iran. Her friends in the AIP were clearly collaborating with Iran. Her husband was clearly a member of this fringe party for seven years. And Sarah Palin herself clearly supported them, praising their "good work" and asking God to "bless them" only this year.

You betcha that's a problem. Read the rest of this post...

Record low percentage of Americans satisfied with direction of country

Doesn't sound like there's much interest in a third Bush term. Gallup:

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are set to meet for the second presidential debate in Nashville Tuesday night at a time when only 9% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States -- the lowest such reading in Gallup Poll history.

The previous low point for Gallup's measure of satisfaction had been 12%, recorded back in 1979, in the midst of rising prices and gas shortages when Jimmy Carter was president. Gallup has recorded a 14% satisfaction level at several points -- once in the senior Bush's administration in 1992, and several times earlier this year.

The reason for Americans' extraordinarily low level of satisfaction is straightforward: the economy. Asked in the weekend Gallup Poll to name the most important problem facing the country today, almost 7 in 10 Americans mentioned some aspect of the economy, far ahead of any other problem mentioned.

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Yesterday, McCain strategist: "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose." Today, Dow dropped over 500 points.

Yesterday, from the McCain campaign:

"If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

McCain desperately wants to change the subject from the economic crisis. Not going to happen.

The final numbers aren't quite in yet, but the Dow dropped another 500 points today. I may be going out on a limb here, but I think people are still talking about the economic crisis. In fact, I think people are talking about it more this week than last week. After Bush signed the bailout bill, there was an expectation that things would at least start to get better -- but no one is seeing that yet.

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McCain should admit it: Bush is campaigning for him in swing states

Yesterday, Bush was in the swing state of Ohio talking about conservative judges. Today, Bush is in the swing state of Virginia talking about the economy -- and the need to make his tax cuts permanent. Bush is pushing the Bush/McCain agenda. These are campaign events for McCain. McCain should just admit it, but he won't.

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A dermatologist of 35 years weighs in on the unanswered questions surrounding McCain's cancer

The doctor has been practicing dermatology for 35 years.

As a dermatologist, I'm particularly troubled by the lack of information that has been released by the McCain campaign about the malignant melanoma, or skin cancer, that was removed from McCain's left temple in 2000. I have spent considerable time researching this issue in an effort to compile complete information about McCain's lesion, to no avail. While I have been able to obtain some information, I have to the inexorable conclusion that critical information about this potentially deadly cancer remains missing from the public record.

This is what I have been able to learn: McCain has had four melanomas. Three of these were "in situ," i.e., very superficial, caught at the earliest stage they can be detected, and of no threat if removed upon discovery. However, the left temple melanoma at issue here, which was excised from an area of relatively thin skin, was described as being a Stage 2A lesion that was 2cm, 2.2mm in diameter. Further, it was HMB-45 and S-100 positive; these are special stains, which, if positive confirms the diagnosis of melanoma skin cancer. Despite finding this information, I could find no mention of the Breslow level of the lesion, which describes the depth of the lesion related to the micro-anatomy of the skin, nor could I find any or data about ulceration, mitotic rate, or other common markers that help determine a patient's prognosis after a serious episode such as McCain's in 2000. Because all of this data is a part of the standard pathology report about any melanoma, I can only conclude that the actual pathology report for this skin cancer was not released last spring, when reporters were allowed a few hours to review over 1,000 selected pages from McCain's medical records. The absence of this information is very troubling as this lesion still has significant potential to be life-threatening.

The prevailing statistics suggest a 10 year survival rate of 65% from malignant melanoma. "For patients with a melanoma like Mr. McCain's who remained free of the disease the first five years after the diagnosis, the probability of recurrence during the next five years was 14% and death 9%." (Lawrence K. Altman, MD, NY Times, March 3, 2008).

Remember, however, that the true depth of McCain's lesion in the thin skin of the temple (Breslow level) is not known. Thus, the potential for metastasis (that is, spreading of the skin cancer to internal organs) cannot be determined without more information. This information must have been available to his surgeons and given that McCain had a sentinel node biopsy evaluation (reported as negative) and the removal of an unknown number of lymph nodes from the left neck, (all also reported as negative for melanoma), it strongly suggests that the information his surgeons gave them cause for concern. The steps they took were are common unless there is a real concern about the possibility of spread at the time of biopsy. Metastases in melanoma may bypass the regional lymph nodes in any case.

Given the office he seeks and, particularly, his choice of running mate, the stated odds will be unacceptable to a significant number of voters.

The American public has every right to complete disclosure and an open discussion of McCain's potentially catastrophic health history.

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Another McCain ethics scandal

I missed this one back in June.

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GOP movie star Chuck Norris appears to suggest that McCain may die during his first term

Greg Mitchell reminds usof something that action star, and Republican, Chuck Norris said this past January, which Mike Huckabee looking on and not objecting:

"Chuck Norris brought his tough-guy approach to the campaign trail Sunday, taking aim at John McCain's age and suggesting the Arizona senator might not last even a single term. Norris, an ardent supporter of Mike Huckabee, told reporters he believes serving as president accelerates the aging process 3-to-1. 'If John takes over the presidency at 72 and he ages 3-to-1, how old will he be in four years? Eighty-four years old — and can he handle that kind of pressure in that job?' Norris said, as Huckabee looked on. 'That's why I didn't pick John to support, because I'm just afraid the vice president will wind up taking over his job within that four-year presidency.' added the action star."

President Palin taking over the reins of the finance crisis, anyone? It's okay, you don't need to retire anyway. Read the rest of this post...

"Sit down, boy"

Coming on the heels of John McCain whipping up a crowd of supporters who called Obama a "terrorist," and Sarah Palin getting her audience to yell "Kill him!" (apparently about Obama), we now find out that Sarah Palin's mob of supporters yesterday turned on a black journalist and yelled "racial epithets" at him while telling him to "sit down, boy."

From the Washington Post:

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Need any more proof of the divisiveness and elitism that John McCain and Sarah Palin are bringing to our country? Imagine, whipping up a crowd to hate "the other." Any surprise that Palin and McCain have so many ties to anti-Semites? Read the rest of this post...

Mini documentary on Sarah Palin charging rape victims for their forensic exams

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AP: McCain was on board of group linked to former Nazi collaborators

In all fairness, who hasn't been on the board of directors of an organization with ties to Nazi sympathizers? McCain and Palin simply have too many ties to extremists and anti-Semites.

More from Sam Stein at Huffing Post:

The USCWF was founded in Phoenix, Arizona in November 1981 as an offshoot of the World Anti-Communist League. The group was, from the onset, saddled with the disreputable reputation of its parent group. The WACL had ties to ultra-right figures and Latin American death squads. Roger Pearson, the chairman of the WACL, was expelled from the group in 1980 under allegations that he was a member of a neo-Nazi organization.

The U.S. Council of World Freedom claimed to be cleansed of these elements. The group's director, retired Major General John Singlaub, said he had purged some of the more "kooky" members, including a Mexican chapter that "blamed everything on the Jews," and "even accused Pope John Paul of being a Jew."

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Palin held fundraiser at home of troubled financial services exec

But to be fair to Palin, her fundraiser host was only at the helm of a company that was fined $75 million by the SEC for questionable trading practices. Since when have unethical financial schemes ever been a problem for Wall Street or the GOP? Oh. Never mind.

More here on who Sarah Palin raised this campaign money with yesterday, right after she smeared Obama.

It was her idea to talk about associations. Read the rest of this post...

Bush on the campaign trail in Ohio fighting for his third term

The Republicans have been trying to hide George Bush given his 25% approval rating . But, yesterday, Bush was on the campaign trail for McCain. The GOPers were trying to be subtle and act like this was a presidential event, not a campaign event. But, let's review facts: Bush was in Ohio. He wasn't talking about the only issue that Americans care about right now, which is the economy. No, Bush was in the swing state of Ohio talking about the need for more right-wing judges.

If it looks like a campaign event, sounds like a campaign event and smells like a campaign event, it's a campaign event:

President Bush stepped gingerly into the presidential campaign on Monday, offering an implicit endorsement of Sen. John McCain's judicial philosophy and accusing Democrats of contributing to a "broken confirmation process" for federal judges.

Welcomed here by an enthusiastic crowd of conservative lawyers, Bush also mounted a vigorous defense of his own judicial appointments over the past 7 1/2 years, saying that his nominees make up more than a third of the federal bench and have been "jurists of the highest caliber, with an abiding belief in the sanctity of our constitution."

"The selection of good judges should be a priority for all of us," Bush said at an event co-sponsored by the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal policy group. "I appreciate that many people listening today and here in this room have worked hard to recruit more Americans to this cause. This work is in all our interests, because the truth of the matter is, the belief in judicial restraint is shared by the vast majority of American citizens."

Bush's remarks, delivered on the opening day of the new Supreme Court session, appeared to be aimed in part at highlighting the issue of judicial appointments during the final weeks of the hard-fought presidential campaign between McCain (Ariz.), the Republican nominee, and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), his Democratic opponent.

Oh, yeah. Bush is campaigning for his third term. Read the rest of this post...

Palin palling around with secessionists

Why does Sarah Palin pal around with people who hate America? Why does she associate with people who want to secede from the United States? Maybe she just wanted to run her own country. Using Sarah's standard for "palling around," we have to ask: Does Sarah secretly hate America? This is all very 1860s. Watch yourself, via Jed:

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

28 days. We're down to four weeks til election day. People are already voting in many states.

One of McCain's strategists said yesterday that if we're still talking about the economic crisis, they'll lose. Despite the efforts of McCain and Palin, we're still talking about it. McCain and Palin are in full-throttled negative attack mode. They are desperate, just desperate to change the subject.

Have I mentioned lately what a tool NBC's David Gregory is? He's smug, annoying and vapid. If the Republicans picked a mascot, one who would just regurgitate any lie they spewed, they'd probably pick Gregory.

Anyway...four weeks left. Make it happen. Read the rest of this post...

Business unimpressed with McCain health care plan

Oh boy, better look out for yet another erratic stunt by McCain. Even his business supporters aren't impressed with the McCain health care plan that will cost even more and do nothing to help the uninsured. Does anyone even care about "tax credits" anymore? That has to be the oldest trick in the book in Washington because it does so little to even impact taxes, unless maybe you're worth hundreds of millions and have the serious tax credits. What good is a stingy $5,000 tax credit when family coverage is over $12,000 per year? Only an aloof millionaire sitting on a dozen houses and teams of attorneys and tax accountants would think this plan is good for regular families.

Over the weekend, Mr. Obama more accurately characterized the McCain plan as a swap but one that would work to the detriment of millions. Middle-class families, he said, would “watch the system they rely on begin to unravel before their eyes.”

The business leaders said that was also their fear. Despite steady declines this decade, employers still provide coverage to 62 percent of Americans younger than 65. Surveys show that they want to continue doing so to attract and maintain a productive workforce.

The business leaders forecast that Mr. McCain’s free-market approach would impose particular burdens on small businesses and old-line manufacturers that are already struggling.

“To some in the business community, this is very discomforting,” said R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the Chamber of Commerce. “The private marketplace, in my opinion, is ill prepared today with an infrastructure for an individual-based health insurance system.”

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CNN poll: 60% see depression as "likely"

Really? Now why would they think that? John McCain has repeatedly told us that the "fundamentals of the economy are good" though maybe that's why he's flailing with his nutty side show stories that have nothing to do with the economy he helped create. I see others writing about how the stock market doesn't resonate with American voters because it's too distant for the average American but I'm less sure of that. Maybe 40 years ago or even 30 years ago but today, Americans often rely on Wall Street for their personal retirement plan. Most people my age are very focused on it because the days of companies offering pension plans are long gone. As John pointed out on Sunday, Americans are going to be opening their quarterly statement on those plans soon and will be gasping at the numbers.

For decades the GOP has sold America on the cheap and easy idea of pay less and all will be great. Well, Americans paid less taxes, got a system that failed to regulate and now we're so deep in the hole with credit debt and plunging retirement plans not to mention an economy that's shot for at least two years, so what the heck else are people going to think? What, are Americans supposed to see a rosy future after all of this? Outside of the failed CEOs who walked away with hundreds of millions (who Waxman ought to pursue instead of hosting another silly little TV theater show) everyone else is understandably stunned. The idea may be far feteched, but it's not unreasonable to see why Americans think this way. We've witnessed such a major blow to a core belief in the American system being above such a fall and digging out and living beneath our means is not what the country is accustomed to doing.

Nearly six out of ten Americans believe another economic depression is likely, according to a poll released Monday.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 Americans over the weekend, cited common measures of the economic pain of the 1930s:

* 25% unemployment rate;
* widespread bank failures; and
* millions of Americans homeless and unable to feed their families.

In response, 21% of those polled say that a depression is very likely and another 38% say it is somewhat likely.

The poll also found that 29% feel a depression is not very likely, while 13% believe it is not likely at all.

But economists, even many who feel current economic risks are dire, generally don't believe another depression is likely.

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McCain and Palin on foreign policy: Tough talk, but not very bright

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Let's hope if John McCain becomes president that Al Qaeda doesn't decide to strike on a weekend. That's his time off.

John McCain takes weekends off, even during this presidential campaign. Then again, he is 72 years old and has suffered 4 relatively recent bouts of serious cancer, and has recently become erratic and confused. But hey, everyone has seen this kind of erratic, lethargic behavior in their elderly parents or grandparents, so why be surprised when it happens to John McCain - I mean, it has been 22 years since he was eligible to join AARP. It would be unfair to expect McCain to be as awake or have as much energy as, to have the mental acuity or intellectual focus of, your normal younger presidential candidate. Any in any case, everyone knows terrorist attacks and hurricanes never happen on weekends. More from Politico:

After a rigorous primary election schedule, the Arizona senator was "down" on nearly every Saturday and Sunday between the time he clinched the nomination in February and June, Politico reported this summer. And since accepting his party’s nomination on Sept. 4, McCain has taken off at least one day each weekend. He held no public events last weekend, and will keep the same schedule this weekend.

Obama, on the other hand, has taken only two weekend days off in the last month.

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Excited for Change

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