Politicususa

Obama: No Controversy with the Clintons

2008-08-07T15:07:25-05:00

Barack Obama spoke to the media and did his best to play down reports that there are still are still some bad feelings between himself and the Clintons.

When Obama was asked about a speaking role for Hillary Clinton at the convention he said, “I spoke to Senator Clinton this week, she’s campaigning for me in Nevada and Florida and she’s very enthusiastic about the need for a unified party and I think we’re going to have a terrific convention, as is true with all conventions we’re still working out the mechanics of the four days and our staff is in communications with Senator Clinton’s staff but I don’t anticipate any problems.” (Mrs. Clinton is widely expected to speak in primetime on the second night of the convention).

Obama also sought to downplay a recent Time magazine story about the bruised feelings of the Clintons, and their supporters, “There hasn’t been controversy other than what you guys are projecting right now,” Obama said. He added that his campaign is talking to the Clintons, not Hillary’s supporters, “We’re not talking to those people and we’re talking to directly to the Clinton campaign people and it has gone seamlessly.”

Obama praised Bill Clinton for keeping his cool during a recent ABC News interview, “He (President Clinton) was very supportive. I thought he showed extraordinary restraint in a fairly provocative interview while he was on his trip.” After a grueling primary campaign, I think it would not be surprising if the Clintons were having a hard time getting over the loss. It was such a close race, that it would be hard for anyone involved to just put it aside.
The real sore point between the two camps is that many Clinton supporters don’t feel that Obama has done enough to help retire Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt.

If you read between the lines a bit, what Obama is saying is that there is no personal problem between the two sides. The problems exist in the media and with the supporters on each side. The polls show that three quarters of Clinton supporters have moved to Obama, so I don’t think that this is a unity issue, but only some lingering feelings left over from a close campaign.

John McCain Encourages Supporters to Spam Blogs

2008-08-07T12:12:54-05:00

Campaigns have used plants for centuries to get their message out. The planted audience member or radio caller is as old as the hills, but the McCain campaign is now encouraging supporters to spread his talking points and post what could be considered spam comments to specified web sites.

According to the Washington Post, a new McCain program allows his supporters to sign up to earn points and win prizes for posting McCain’s talking points around the Internet. The campaign considers this spreading the word, but most blogs would consider this spam.

According to McCain’s site, here is how it works, “Select from the numerous web, blog and news sites listed here, go there, and make your opinions supporting John McCain known. Once you’ve commented on a post, video or news story, report the details of your comment by clicking the button below. After your comments are verified, you will be awarded points through the McCain Online Action Center.”

The liberal blogs listed as targets by the campaign are all of the big boys Crooks and Liars, DailyKos, My DD, and Think Progess.There is also one key swing state blog, ColoradoPols.com. It is one thing to target the opposition, but the McCain campaign is generating such little buzz among Republicans that they will also be spamming around 70 conservative blogs. They also have a handful of moderate and other blogs targeted.

All I can say is how badly does a candidate’s campaign have to be going that he has to manufacture enthusiasm within his own party. This is really pathetic when you think about it. The campaign does not specify that the comments left have to be relevant to the blog post that they are left under, so the campaign is in essence encouraging a spam for McCain campaign.

Either the McCain folks have a serious inferiority complex, or they know that they are in big trouble. The RNC has been doing this kind of thing for years, but McCain is the first presidential nominee to offer prizes for spamming.

CBS News Poll: Obama 45% McCain 39%

2008-08-06T18:47:25-05:00

A new CBS News national poll released this evening shows the 2008 presidential race unchanged from last month. Barack Obama leads John McCain 45%-39% with 13% undecided.

It seems that as this race is becoming more polarizing, more voters say that they have made up their minds about who they will support. Seventy percent of those surveyed said that they have made up their minds about who they will support, but the enthusiasm gap remains between the two candidates. 54% of Obama supporters said that they were enthusiastic about Obama, compared to 14% of John McCain’s supporters who felt the same way about him.

Both candidates are appealing to their bases. Obama leads among Democrats, liberals, voters under age 45, African Americans, and women. McCain leads with Republicans, conservatives, voters over age 45, and white evangelicals. This is also known as the Republican base. Obama leads McCain with all men 46%-42%, but trails McCain with white men, 45%-41%. Independents are split between the two candidates 40%-40% with 16% undecided.

Clinton supporters have moved to Obama by a margin of 52%-19%. However, 24% still remain undecided. 53% of registered voters said that they are paying a lot of attention to this election, which is up five points from this time in 2004, and by a more than a 2 to 1 margin voters listed the economy and jobs as their most important issue (36%), over the war in Iraq (17%), and gas and oil prices (9%).

By a 70%-24% margin voters don’t think the candidates are paying enough attention to their issues. The respondents in this poll also favored offshore drilling (64%-28%), and thought that the next president should pay more attention to domestic issues over foreign policy (77%-8%). Voters also thought that the president can do something about gas prices (67%) and the economy (65%). Opinions of the candidates remained virtually unchanged from last month, which means that neither Obama’s foreign trip nor McCain’s attacks ads have changed the race.

If the results of this poll were to be summed in a phrase, it would be same as it ever was. This race has hit a lull. It isn’t moving in any direction. We probably won’t see much change until after each of the conventions, and then again, not until after the first presidential debate. If each candidate only appeals to their base, Independents will once again decide this election, and it will be a close race until the end.

Read the full poll results in PDF

Bob Barr Compares the U.S. and China on Domestic Spying

2008-08-06T13:58:13-05:00

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr drew an interesting comparison today between the domestic spying of the Chinese government during the upcoming Olympics, and the domestic spying of the Bush administration on U.S. citizens.

“The Olympics is about to begin in China, but visitors will find themselves living under the same restrictions on their liberties as Chinese citizens. The government is forcing foreign-owned hotels to install software to spy on guests’ internet use. The U.S. State Department says both phone calls and emails are subject to surveillance and warns that tourists ‘have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public or private locations.’ It sounds an awful lot like America today,” Barr said.

He then discussed our government’s power to spy, “Obviously our government is not the same as the communist government in Beijing. But our government has acquired from Congress—and sometimes simply seized on its own—the power to electronically surveil citizens’ phone calls and e-mails. Under the Patriot Act and the just-expanded Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, the federal government can search our homes and computers and monitor our phone conversations and internet use with minimal – if any-- outside oversight. .. Indeed, the president of the United States claims that he can designate an American living in America as an “enemy combatant” and thereby deny him any rights under the Constitution,” Barr said.

Barr also pointed out the hypocrisy, of those who criticize China, but support domestic spying in the United States, “American legislators have been expressing outrage at China’s behavior, but many of them voted to authorize the U.S. government to spy on American citizens. America’s reputation, and its credibility to challenge other governments for human rights abuses, has been badly damaged by the U.S. government’s assault on the civil liberties and privacy of Americans in our country.”

I was more than a little skeptical about Barr’s intentions when he ran for the Libertarian Party’s nomination, but he is turning out to be an excellent candidate. Barr is correct on so many levels here. The Bush administration has trashed our right to privacy, and both the Democrats and Republicans who voted for the Patriot Act and FISA have no room to talk about China’s domestic spying.

Neither Obama nor McCain want to talk about this issue, which is why I think we need to have Ralph Nader and Bob Barr in the debates. Maybe we don’t have both of them at every debate together. I propose that they both would be allowed to participate in one debate, and they would each alternate in the other two debates. I know that both parties are loathe to give American voters real choices, so the odds of this happening is zero, but doing so would restore a little bit of democracy back to our political process.

Golden Realities: Politics and the Olympics

2008-08-05T22:44:44-05:00

Despite the supposed political neutrality that the Olympic Games carries within its very essence, some had come to question the morality and correctness of holding the games in a state with a questionable human rights record.

Nonetheless, the anticipation was tangible.

The city was tended to with the greatest of care, awaiting athletes and competitors from across the globe to come to the nation's capital city, in awe of the greatest sports extravaganza the world had ever seen.

It was a chance to show off the state to the people of the world, of their model government, to showcase the glories of their culture and achievements of its citizens.

The site: Berlin.

The year: 1936.

Hitler's Olympics are perhaps the most controversial to date, although that honor, as it were, may be forever surpassed by the games to be held in just a matter of days in Beijing, China.

Or so would the detractors of the Beijing games like you to believe.

For the record, it must be noted that the awarding of the games to Germany was prior to the rise of the National Socialist German Worker's Party (aka the NSDAP aka the Nazi Party) and Hitler's ascension to the Chancellery, making the choice of Berlin a bit less notorious as one might suspect.

The great alleged controversy of this current Olympiad - the 29th Summer incarnation - is that given China's record pertaining to human rights abuses, coupled with a distinct lack of freedom and justice, makes the choice of Beijing incompatible with the spirit of the Olympics, and its Charter.

The Charter clearly makes note of the Olympic movement's desire for, "respect for universal fundamental ethical principles."

China, given its grevious violations, clearly defies this Article (1) of the Charter.

Stop right there, protest supporters of China. The Olympics are not about politics or internal matters, but merely athletics, and a spirit of camaraderie, in reflection of the ancient games held centuries ago at Olympia.

That's all well and good, and even perhaps a bit fanciful, but the truth is far more apparent: of course the Olympics are political, they likely always have been, and always will be.

Politics reared its ugly head in the tit-for-tat boycotts 1980s, when the Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles games after the United States and others did not participate in the Soviet games of 1980, as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

And it would seem, no matter the records of individual host nations in the fields of human, civil, political, or even economic rights, the IOC seems less interested in those matters than the ability of the host state to present memorable, stable, successful games.

The Soviet Union was chosen despite its poor showing in the field of human rights (e.g. Berlin Wall).

So why the hysteria over the decision to award the games to China?

Recent upheavals in Tibet and the subsequent crackdown have fueled the angst of those in the West, weary of the Chinese government's hard hand. Additionally, stories of Chinese espionage in the United States and recalls of made in China goods have fanned the flames of anti-Chinese sentiment.

Are the objections over the Chinese holding the games legitimate? Of course. Will the regime use the games for propaganda reasons? Certainly. Will another state with dubious credentials ever hold the Olympics again? Yes, and many in the international community will point to the following certainty:

it'll be just a matter of time before the five ringed Olympic flag flies over the United States again.

(References: Gitmo, Iraq, 2003 Invasion of, assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, Iran-Contra, etc.)

Obama: These Guys Take Pride in Being Ignorant

2008-08-05T17:32:21-05:00

At a town hall meeting in Berea, Ohio today, Barack Obama hit back at Republican mocking of his energy plan.

According to ABC News Obama said, “"You know the other day I was in a town hall meeting and I laid out my plans for investing $15 billion a year in energy efficient cars and a new electricity grid and somebody said, 'well, what can I do? what can individuals do?'”

"So I told them something simple," Obama said. "I said, 'You know what? You can inflate your tires to the proper levels and that if everybody in America inflated their tires to the proper level, we would actually probably save more oil than all the oil we'd get from John McCain drilling right below his feet there, or wherever he was going to drill.'"

Obama said that Republicans are lying about his energy plan, and taking pride in their ignorance, "So now the Republicans are going around - this is the kind of thing they do. I don't understand it! They’re going around, they're sending like little tire gauges, making fun of this idea as if this is 'Barack Obama's energy plan.' Now two points, one, they know they're lying about what my energy plan is, but the other thing is they're making fun of a step that every expert says would absolutely reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent. It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.”

He also said that instead of running attack ads, Republicans ought to spend some time talking to energy experts, “You know, they think it is funny that they are making fun of something that is actually true. They need to do their homework. Because this is serious business. Instead of running ads about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears they should go talk to some energy experts and actually make a difference."

The Republicans have built a very successful campaign strategy by both appealing to the anti-intellectualist sentiment in some parts of the voting public, and by offering semi-solutions that promise answers to our problems without pain. That is the basis of the McCain energy plan. It appeals to people who don’t want to have to cut their consumption, but want gas prices to come down. Offshore drilling is the easy solution that the Republicans promise will require no sacrifice from the American people. Remember, this is the same logic that they used to defend the invasion of Iraq too.

The tire gauge thing is a symbolic tactic that the McCain campaign is using to try to define Obama’s energy plan as out of touch. This is another attempt to label Obama the new Jimmy Carter, and Obama needs to understand that the entire Republican strategy is based on exploiting the ignorance of voters, so they not only take pride in ignorance, but also look to exploit it. The strategy of the McCain campaign is not to run on their own merits, but to be the anti-Obama. However, this is a plan that is likely to fail.

Poll: Obama Leads McCain by 11 with Women

2008-08-05T14:53:03-05:00

According to a new national poll commissioned by Lifetime Networks, Barack Obama leads John McCain 49%-38% with women voters. Not surprisingly, Obama’s strength is with minority women. Eight nine percent of African American women, and 62% of Hispanic women said that they are supporting Obama.

Interestingly, those surveyed said the gender of each candidate’s choice of running mate does not matter. Fifty five percent of Obama supporters said selecting a woman as his running mate does not matter, and 62% of McCain supporters said that it did not matter. However, Obama would benefit by selecting a woman running mate, while McCain could actually be hurt by it.

Twenty nine percent of women said that they would be more likely to support Obama if he had a female running mate, while 15% said that they would be more inclined to support McCain, but 20% said that they would be less likely to support the Republican if he added a woman to the ticket. Obama has a higher positive rating than McCain 53%-37%. Overall voters are split on McCain 37% view him favorably, and 31% unfavorably. Obama leads McCain with Independent women 42%-30% with 20% still undecided.

Most of the Hillary Clinton supporters have moved to Obama (76%), but 18% answered that they will vote for John McCain. Most women blame bad campaign strategy as the reason why Hillary Clinton lost (34%). Thirty one percent blamed her loss on who she was and what she stood for, and 21% said that she lost because she is a woman. The top four issues listed by the women surveyed in this poll were the economy (41%), the war in Iraq (24%), healthcare (23%) and education (17%).

At best Obama is splitting the male vote with John McCain, so women are a critical group that he must win in November. Judging from this poll, it would appear that the bad feelings of the Democratic primary campaign have passed for most Clinton supporters. I think much of the credit for this goes to Hillary Clinton herself. She has led her supporters by example and thrown herself into the Obama campaign. I still believe that the coalition that will power Obama to victory will be made up of younger voters, minorities, and women.

The full poll results can be read here.

Obama: The Oil Companies Are Backing McCain

2008-08-05T11:33:07-05:00

Barack Obama continued his theme of energy week in Youngstown, OH today where he criticized John McCain’s energy plan, and labeled the Republican the candidate of the oil companies.

“And unfortunately, in this election, Senator McCain has proposed an energy plan that’s nothing but four years more of the same. He’s offering a plan with no significant investments in alternative energy. He’s offering a gas tax holiday that will pad oil company profits and save you – at best – half a tank of gas over the course of an entire summer. And he’s offering $4 billion more in tax breaks to the biggest oil companies in America – including $1.2 billion to Exxon-Mobil, a company that just recorded the largest profit in the history of the United States. A company that, last quarter, made the same amount of money in 30 seconds that a typical Ohio worker makes in a year,” Obama said.

Obama repeated his attack that McCain’s plan won’t help anyone now, “Instead of offering a real plan to lower gas prices, the only energy proposal he’s really promoting is more offshore drilling. This plan won’t lower prices today. It won’t lower prices during the next Administration. The truth is, we wouldn’t see a drop of oil from this drilling for at least seven years. And while Senator McCain’s plan won’t save you at the pump anytime soon, it sure has done a lot to raise campaign dollars. Senator McCain raised more than one million dollars from the oil industry just last month, most of which came after he announced his plan for offshore drilling to a room full of cheering oil executives.”

He said that the oil companies have placed their bets on McCain, “So to sum up, under Senator McCain’s plan, the oil companies get billions more, we don’t pay any less at the pump, and we stay in the same cycle of dependence on oil that got us into this crisis. The oil companies have placed their bet on Senator McCain, and if he wins, they will continue to cash in while our families and our economy suffer and our future is put in jeopardy…Because after one president in the pocket of the oil companies – we can’t afford another. For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we must end the age of oil in our time.”

I think labeling McCain as a puppet of the oil companies is a smart strategy. The numbers don’t lie. Obama has gotten over $300,000 from the oil companies and McCain over a million. It isn’t a coincidence that after McCain changed his position on offshore drilling; he raised a million dollars from the oil companies. Big Oil has owned the GOP for decades. It is the Republicans who have been blocking alternative energy bills for decades. It is the Republicans who rewrote the terms of the federal drilling leases so the oil companies paid less. It was the Republicans who passed billions of dollars in tax breaks for big oil.

John McCain put out a new ad today that touts his independence, but when it comes to Big Oil, he has been in lockstep with the GOP. What kind of independent votes with his party 95% of the time anyway? Everyone knows that the maverick McCain is dead. He has been replaced with a neo-con McClone. Obama best line of attack is to keep pointing out that a vote for McCain is a vote for more pain at the pump. If McCain is elected the oil companies will continue to reign supreme. I think this is a powerful message to send to voters.

Bill Clinton Offers Obama Half Hearted Support in ABC Interview

2008-08-04T18:52:17-05:00

In an interview that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight Bill Clinton denied that he is angry at Barack Obama, but offered very little in terms of an endorsement and enthusiasm for the Democratic nominee.

Clinton denied that he is still angry, “I’m not, and I never was mad at Senator Obama. I think everybody’s got a right to run for president if he qualifies under the Constitution, and I would be the last person to ever begrudge anybody their ambition, and he was a superbly gifted candidate in this election, and had a great operation. They thought this thing through, and it’s a contact sport…The only thing I ever got mad about was people in your kind of work pretending that she started this stuff.”

Clinton refused to comment on whether or not he had anything to do with his wife’s loss, because he said it interferes with the issue of who should be elected in November. He said that he will talk about it when the election is over. Clinton blasted former friend Jim Clyburn and blamed him for hurting his standing with the African-American community. He also blamed the media, “I got bad press, because I told the truth that there was a different standard applied to the finest candidate I ever supported.”

Clinton was asked if Obama is ready to be president, and said, “You can argue that no one is ever ready to be president…He has shown a keen strategic sense in his ability to run an effective campaign. He clearly can inspire and motivate people and energize them, which is an important part of being president, and he is smart as a whip so there is nothing that he can’t learn.”

Two things are made clear in this interview. Bill Clinton still has some issues with Barack Obama, and he blames the media for his wife’s loss in the Democratic primary. The reality is that Clinton was banished to the rural white campaign stops because he could not stop putting his foot in his mouth. I think bad campaign strategy cost Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination, but her husband certainly didn’t help. It is obvious that Bill views his wife’s defeat as personal rejection of his presidency. President Clinton could be a valuable asset for Obama this fall, but judging from this frosty interview, I wouldn’t expect too much support for Obama from him this fall.

Watch the interview

McCain Promotes Drilling, While Lying About Obama's Position

2008-08-04T15:03:27-05:00

Energy is the topic of the week so far on the presidential campaign trail. After touring a label factory in Lafayette Hill, PA, McCain said that we must drill here, drill now, and criticized Barack Obama for not being straight with the American people.

“We are going to solve the energy crisis that is effecting businesses like National Label Company, and we need an all of the above approach. We need to aggressively develop alternative energies like wind, solar, tide, bio-fuels, and geothermal. We also need to expand our use of existing resources here at home. That means we need more nuclear power. It means we need more clean coal technology, and that means we need to offshore drill for oil and natural gas. We need to drill here and we need to drill now, and anybody who says that we can achieve energy independence without using and increasing these existing energy resources either doesn’t have the experience to understand the challenge we face or isn’t giving the American people some straight talk,” McCain said.

Next were the distortions about Obama stance on energy, “Unfortunately, Senator Obama continues to oppose offshore drilling. He continues to oppose the use of nuclear power. These misguided polices would result in higher energy costs to American families and business, and increase our dependence on foreign oil. We are not going to achieve energy independence by inflating our tires.”

This is what Obama said today about offshore drilling, “Like all compromises, this one has its drawbacks. It includes a limited amount of new offshore drilling, and while I still don’t believe that’s a particularly meaningful short-term or long-term solution, I am willing to consider it if it’s necessary to actually pass a comprehensive plan. I am not interested in making the perfect the enemy of the good – particularly since there is so much good in this compromise that would actually reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”

Secondly, if anybody with the McCain campaign would have watched the news, they would have heard Obama say this about nuclear power and clean coal, “In addition, we’ll find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste. And we’ll invest in the technology that will allow us to use more coal, America’s most abundant energy source, with the goal of creating five “first-of-a-kind” coal-fired demonstration plants with carbon capture and sequestration.” This doesn’t sound like opposition to offshore drilling, nuclear power, and clean coal to me.

McCain talked about alternative energy, but then he later made a disparaging remark about inflating our tires. This comment provided a great deal of insight into where McCain really stands. Obama offered an energy plan that is willing to invest money for our future, while John McCain is willing spend tax payer money on tax breaks for the wealthy oil companies. McCain claims to have the experience, but what if it is the wrong kind of experience for the future? Americans face a choice between an energy policy that will continue to benefit the few, and a policy that will reshape America’s energy future.

Obama Unveils His Energy Plan and a New Ad

2008-08-04T11:10:58-05:00

Today in Lansing, MI Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama unveiled his energy plan and his campaign debuted a television ad that charged John McCain with being in the back pocket of big oil.

Obama’s energy plan itself, is much the same as the one he proposed during the primary with a few minor but significant changes. Obama now supports opening up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Obama now says that he would use some light crude oil in the reserve, and replace it with heavier crude oil later, “We should sell 70 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude, which in the past has lowered gas prices within two weeks.” This is an idea that Nancy Pelosi has been pushing the House, that Obama originally rejected.

Only July 7 Obama said, “I have said and, in fact, supported a congressional resolution that said we should suspend putting more oil into the strategic oil reserve, but the strategic oil reserve I think has to be reserved for a genuine emergency." I think that Obama should have stuck to his original position. Just as it doesn’t make sense to keep filling the Reserve, it makes even less sense to deplete the reserve for a couple of weeks of relief at the pump, then have to refill it with more expensive oil. I criticized McCain’s gas tax holiday, and this Democratic is also stupid. It was born out of poll numbers and election year pressure.

The other new parts of Obama’s plan are the emergency energy rebate. Obama would rescind billions in tax breaks for the oil companies, and use the money to provide energy rebates $1,000 per couple and $500 per individual to the American people, and a use it or lose it provision for oil and gas leases on federal land, “I also believe that in the short-term, as we transition to renewable energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. But we should start by telling the oil companies to drill on the 68 million acres they currently have access to but haven’t touched. And if they don’t, we should require them to give up their leases to someone who will.”

The nuts and bolts of the plan remain the same as the one that he touted during the primary, increased fuel efficiency and more hybrid cars, a cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gases, a requirement for more electricity to come from renewable sources, and the creation of five million new jobs by investing in clean energy.

Obama also criticized McCain for selling himself to the oil companies, “In fact, he raised more than one million dollars from big oil just last month, most of which came after he announced his plan for offshore drilling in a room full of cheering oil executives. His initial reaction to the bipartisan energy compromise was to reject it because it took away tax breaks for oil companies. And even though he doesn’t want to spend much on renewable energy, he’s actually proposed giving $4 billion more in tax breaks to the biggest oil companies in America – including $1.2 billion to Exxon-Mobil.” This criticism is also repeated in a new ad released by the Obama campaign this morning.

Here is the new ad:

Even with these minor strategic shifts by Obama on offshore drilling and the Strategic Reserve, the contrast between the two candidates remains stark. McCain wants to keep doing what we are already doing on energy, with the addition of drilling for more oil, while Obama has a goal of eliminating our dependence on foreign oil in a decade. One candidate has a comprehensive plan, while the other is offering cosmetic change. That in a nutshell is the early story of this election between John McCain and Barack Obama.

You can read the full text of Obama’s speech here.

Pelosi Slams the GOP on Offshore Drilling

2008-08-03T17:41:43-05:00

Nancy Pelosi was on ABC’s This Week and she blasted the Republican offshore drilling plan as decoy. Pelosi was asked why she won’t allow a straight up or down vote on offshore drilling. She said that Republicans are misleading the American people.

“What we have now is a failed energy policy by Bush/Cheney two oil men in the White House. Four dollar a gallon gasoline at the pump and what they are saying is lets have more of the same. Let’s have more of big oil making record profits, historic profits, you see the quarterly reports that just came out. Who want to be subsidized, they don’t really want to compete and let them use those subsidies to drill oil in protected areas. Instead we are saying free the oil, use it don’t lose it. There’s 68 million acres in the lower 48 and 10 or 20 million acres in Alaska where they are permitted, where they could drill anytime. This is a diversionary tactic from a failed energy policy," Pelosi said.

Pelosi called offshore drilling a decoy, “The misrepresentation is being made that this is going to reduce the price at the pump. This is a decoy, not an energy solution. Host George Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi why she won’t allow a debate and a vote on drilling, “We have debates everyday on the subject. What you saw in the Congress this week was the war dance of the hand maidens of the oil industry on the Republican side.”

Pelosi accused the GOP of using a tactic to undermine a comprehensive energy bill. Pelsoi said that she is blocking a vote on drilling because President Bush won’t allow oil to be released from the Strategic Reserve, and he is opposed to ending oil speculation, or allowing people with leases to drill to use them. She said that if the government subsidizes drilling, there is no incentive for the private sector to develop alternative energy.

If you read between the lines, what Pelosi is saying is that she is not going to allow a vote on offshore drilling unless she gets some of the proposals that she wants as part of a comprehensive energy bill. She is correct in saying that the offshore drilling issue is a decoy, and that the oil companies don’t want competition.

However, there is huge degree of election year politics involved in this issue too. In my opinion, the real reason that Pelosi won’t allow a vote on offshore drilling is that she doesn’t want to hand John McCain anything to campaign on this fall.

You can watch the entire Pelosi interview here.

Kerry: McCain is engaged in Character Assassination

2008-08-03T15:41:50-05:00

Today Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman were on Meet the Press where Kerry went after the presidential campaign of John McCain for engaging in character assassination against Barack Obama.

Kerry was asked by moderator Tom Brokaw if Obama thinks that he is being picked on because he is black. He answered, “No. What he was saying is they're trying to scare you. They're trying to scare the American people. And, believe me, I'm an expert on how they do that. They are engaged in character assassination, even John McCain's partner in a number of initiatives in the Senate, Russ Feingold, said yesterday, "They've decided they can't win on the issues, so now they're going to try to destroy his character." And that is exactly what this ad (Celeb) is calculated to do.”

Later Kerry said that the Republicans are doing this because they can’t win on the issues, “No, he (Obama) was talking--what he was talking about is this campaign to scare about the person, and that's what they do. They try to scare about the person. They try to attack the character. They can't win on health care. They can't win on the economy. Eighty-five percent of the people in the nation know the country's moving in the wrong direction.”

Lieberman defended the ads as humorous fun, “First off, you know, we all ought to relax a little bit. It's, it's a bit of humor. It's a way to draw people into the ad. Incidentally, the McCain campaign has another ad up in which they seem to be comparing Obama to Moses. So, in my book, that's about a good comparison as you can ask for. I should say, in "The Book," it's about a good a comparison as you should ask for.”

Even if one accepts Lieberman’s explanation of the ads, the point is that John McCain is making jokes about celebrity while 50 million Americans have no healthcare. McCain isn’t talking about issues while tens of thousands of jobs are being lost. Kerry is right. John McCain can’t win on the issues, so he has to create distractions with negative ads. The country wants change and the premise of the McCain campaign is that we should have as little change as possible.

I think that the McCain celebrity ad has flopped. Paris Hilton isn’t happy with being in the ad and her mom Kathy blasted it today as a waste of time and money. It should be noted that Kathy Hilton is a McCain supporter and donor.

I also don’t think it is a good idea for the McCain camp to be pointing out how popular Obama is. It is counterproductive to show pictures of Obama addressing big crowds in your own advertising. This whole discussion should serve as a reminder that beneath the attacks, the GOP is offering more of the same, and in a change election this is a certain path to defeat.

McCain Eyes New VP Candidate: Eric Cantor

2008-08-03T03:32:59-05:00

After weeks and months of punditry and media speculations on who will be the Vice Presidential picks for both John McCain and Barack Obama, it appears that the normally dull McCain campaign has made a bit of fresh news by "leaking" some new developments to the press.

It has been assumed, for quite some time now, by unexcited and even lethargic conservatives that McCain would select either Mitt Romney or Charlie Crist, with a slight chance of Sarah Palin and/or Bobby Jindal as VP. A new twist has been added in the past week to the Republican Veepstakes. Word has been circulating that John McCain is now seriously considering a "dark horse" newcomer to his Veepstakes, Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor.

Someone close to the McCain campaign stated under conditions of anonymity that Cantor and McCain have held several personal meetings as of late, and most recently, the McCain campaign asked Congressman Cantor to turn over records and documents, which at this stage of the game, pretty much denotes VP consideration and vetting.

Telling signs pointing to Cantor being seriously considered include frequent, visible appearances on TV speaking as a surrogate for McCain's campaign as well as reinforcing McCain's political positions on foreign, domestic and economic issues. As well, Cantor seems to be fine tuning his "attack dog" role by becoming more and more vocal, as well as more and more forceful in criticizing nearly every position Obama holds.

Cantor, the four-term Congressman, would be a better choice than the others because he is 45, which would balance out McCain's advanced age, as well as counter Obama's youth, has strong support among the hardcore conservative base, favors a constitutional ban to gay marriage, is a huge proponent of the anti-tax philosophy of the Republican party, and is Jewish. Perhaps the biggest reason he is under consideration is because he's from the state of Virginia. With talks heating up about VA Governor Tim Kaine having the inside track to Obama's VP slot, McCain is trying to keep VA in play.

As of right now, even though Cantor is the "new buzz," the chances of him being selected as McCain's running mate is high, perhaps even higher than the other, oft-mentioned possibilities. Romney is not a conservative favorite due to his Mormonism and his recent flip-flopping on issues to appear as a conservative. Crist, though popular in Florida, may be seen as not quite conservative enough, especially being paired with McCain. And there are persistent rumors that Crist may be gay. That certainly won't go over well with the base. Jindal has pretty much taken himself out of the running as a way to preserve his own presidential run in 2012, and nothing has been said about Palin at all by the McCain campaign.

Within the next couple weeks, we may just be hearing the announcement of the McCain/Cantor ticket.

McCain: Town Halls are Beneath a World Wide Celebrity like Obama

2008-08-02T19:53:42-05:00

The McCain campaign continued their strategy of negative attacks against Obama, but putting out a statement which implied that Obama considers himself too big of a celebrity to appear at joint town hall events with John McCain.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, “John McCain looks forward to debating Barack Obama as often as possible, but it’s disappointing that Senator Obama has refused his offer to do joint town hall meetings. We understand it might be beneath a worldwide celebrity of Barack Obama’s magnitude to appear at town hall meetings alongside John McCain and directly answer questions from the American people, but we hope he’ll reconsider.”

Rogers implied that Obama was all talk, “The American people expect and deserve no less. Unfortunately, it appears that Barack Obama’s tough-guy talk on ‘duels’ this week was just more empty words. Americans are quickly coming to the conclusion that it’s better to look at what Barack Obama actually does and not listen to what he says.”

The McCain campaign may get some short term help from these negative attacks on Obama now, but if they intend on doing this up to Election Day, they better be prepared for a backlash. McCain supporters compare his attacks on Obama to the swiftboating of John Kerry. The big difference between the two is that the negative attacks in Kerry didn’t start until after he officially accepted the Democratic nomination. This latest attack isn’t about debates. The point is to paint Obama as a celebrity who thinks that he is too good for regular people.

John McCain as the common man doesn’t really play well. Most people don’t wear $500 loafers to work. Most people aren’t married to a wealthy heiress, and enjoy a life of luxury the way John McCain does. To me, all of the McCain campaign’s griping about Obama’s celebrity sounds like sour grapes from a former media darling. Mark today down as another day when McCain decided to focus on negative attacks instead of the issues, so much for the clean campaign that he promised to run.