November 4, 2008

I will never forget where I was the night Obama was elected President. It seemed like the day would never come, after almost two full years of intense campaigning. In that week leading up to the election, it was inconceivable that this whole ordeal would be coming to an end in a few short days. At the same time, however, the campaign felt like it was at it's end. No new points were being made. The candidates were making their closing arguments. The election was in the hands of the voters.

Everyone at Guilford College was optimistic. People were saying things like "when he wins..." I was more cautious. Having seen the 2004 Ohio election where Kerry lost the election, I wasn't as confident that Obama could do it.

After what seemed like an deathly long day, election night finally arrived. I worked in the Library until 6:00 so my night could be free. I joined a packed common room filled with students and faculty alike. Tonight, everyone was waiting. Waiting for history.

The room got focused as the election results began to come in. Every time a state went to Obama, the crowd erupted. When McCain won a state, the room was largely silent. I was impressed with the surprising politeness of the crowd. They weren't being negative towards McCain, it was pro-Obama.

When McCain lost Pennsylvania, I became overjoyed. McCain needed to win Pennsylvania. He was banking on it. But he lost big, which meant that in swing states, maybe undecideds weren't McCain supporters faking it after all. When Obama won Ohio, I went nuts. At that point, it was impossible for McCain to win. He wouldn't win California, Oregon, and Washington. Yet at the same time, it was hard to believe. Was the United States REALLY about to elect a man, a black man named Barack Hussein Obama no less, to the highest office in the land? It was so wonderful, so utterly monumental that some part of me refused to believe it.

The Crowd counted down until the West Coast states closed. 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2...1. They cheered, laughing becuause it was like New Years. When CNN projected that Obama was the next President, the crowd erupted. Jubilation filled the air as the room deafened as people screamed. We were hugging, crying. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The sheer joy of everyone, white, black, young, old was such a powerful testament to the power of our country.

After hugging everyone there (I was shaking at this point), I joined an impromptu crowd that was quickly gathering at the President's House. The crowd became a mob, and we began to go through the campus. We traveled to Bryan, where we congregated in the courtyard. The crowd quickly grew as people came out onto their balconies, and joined the crowd. I brought my American flag, and people began grabbing on. It was a beautiful movement. People were proud of their country, proud to hold the Stars and Stripes.

The crowd grew in size as we left Bryan and marched down the campus towards the entrance. I remember people screaming, cheering, all so happy at the results of the election. Photographers for The Guilfordian were taking pictures of my flag, and the surrounding faces. By the time we crossed West Friendly Ave. the crowd had grown to over 300 in size. We marched through the Hess station and down Guilford College Rd. People were honking and cheering out of their windows. Try as they might, people couldn't be kept out of the street.

We headed towards Harris Teeter. I think people wanted to celebrate with everyone possible. There was no destructive feeling to the crowd, although we did knock down an old wooden fence. When we got to Harris Teeter, some people tried to march through, but the vast majority of the crowd turned back towards Friendly Avenue. The crowd re-congregated at the Guilford Sign on the corner. An impromptu rally was held there. People got on top of the sign and started cheering. I handed my flag up to them, and they waved it around. There was so much pride for the nation, for the restored faith in the electoral process, and how people's voices counted.

After the rally at the sign started to break up, we towards the Old Apartments, via Miner. We paused in Milner to hear Barack Obama give his acceptance speech. Tears welled up in my eyes as I heard him speak. After so long, we had accomplished our goal. The crowd in Grant Park was electric. It was a victory speech not only for Obama and the Democratic Party, but also for equality. Obama was only the fifth African-American Senator ever elected. In four short years, he had been elected to the highest office in the country.

At the same time, I feel as though I can't possibly describe the true magnitude of the election. Although I've lived my whole life in a racially diverse area, I'm white. I can't comprehend the trouble that African-American's went through. In addition, my generation has grown up in a society that for the most part treats everyone equally. My generation has never known a time when people couldn't vote simply because of who they are or what color skin they have. This, however, could be an explanation for why the young vote was so vocal for Obama. We saw a leader who had that unique American optimism even in times of trouble. We didn't see the color of his skin, the "non-traditional" name. We all have unique backgrounds, and Obama's didn't seem so outrageous.


To reflect on the election, I hope that Obama fulfills his promises. More than any other candidate in history, he's earned the trust and respect of many people, significantly the future of America. The expectations will be higher than ever before. Obama will have to be honest with the American people, even if it's not good news (and based on the Economy and the War, it probably won't be). But if you ask me, I think he'll handle it correctly. He'll be honest, yet understanding. I hope that he leads the country with the grace and maturity that propelled him to the Presidency.

Congratulations, Sen. Obama. Congratulations, America. We've cleared a hurdle many thought they would never see in their lifetimes. We have a ways to go. But to quote the Obama campaign, "Yes we can." With that optimism and a new outlook on the world, I would bet that America is on it's way to new heights. We're on our way to a society that will lead the world not with an iron fist but with a helping hand.

Why I Hope for the Sake of the Darfuris Obama is Elected

With the economy failing, much of John McCain and Barack Obama’s second debate was spent arguing over what economic policies would best lift us out of crisis. But there was one question in particular, one that seems to have escaped everyone’s minds, that really frightened me.
Moderator Tom Brokaw asked each of the candidates to define their “doctrines.” In a question probably generated after Vice Presidential candidate/beauty queen Sarah Palin was unable to define the now-infamous Bush Doctrine, Senators Obama and McCain were answering what was not only a debate question but an indication on the future of their presidencies.
Obama answered first. “Well, we may not always have national security issues at stake, but we have moral issues at stake,” he said. “When genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us. And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our interests, or national interests, in intervening where possible.”

Let’s take the example of Darfur just for a moment. Right now there’s a peacekeeping force that has been set up and we have African Union troops in Darfur to stop a genocide that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. We could be providing logistical support, setting up a no-fly zone at relatively little cost to us, but we can only do it if we can help mobilize the international community and lead. And that’s what I intend to do when I’m president.”

This answer is revolutionary in it’s own right. First, he declared the situation in Darfur “genocide.” When doing this, Obama is making it clear: what is going on in Darfur is genocide. We have a moral obligation to stop and prevent genocide. Another significant part of his statements was the link between ethnic cleansing and genocide. Long used as a safe fallback, the term “ethnic cleansing” is often used as a governmental excuse for tough words, but inaction. Obama made clear what was already obvious: The two are one in the same, and they both must be stopped.
McCain, on the other hand, was far different. “The United States of America, Tom, is the greatest force for good, as I said. And we must do whatever we can to prevent genocide, whatever we can to prevent these terrible calamities that we have said never again.” he declared. “But it also has to be tempered with our ability to beneficially affect the situation. That requires a cool hand at the tiller. This requires a person who understands what our – the limits of our capability are.” It gets worse: “You have to temper your decisions with the ability to beneficially affect the situation and realize you’re sending America’s most precious asset, American blood, into harm’s way. And, again, I know those situations.

The security of your young men and women who are serving in the military are my first priority right after our nation’s security.

And I may have to make those tough decisions. But I won’t take them lightly. And I understand that we have to say never again to a Holocaust and never again to Rwanda. But we had also better be darn sure we don’t leave and make the situation worse, thereby exacerbating our reputation and our ability to address crises in other parts of the world.

This answer is disturbing on many levels. First, he didn’t even mention Darfur once, despite practically being prompted by Sen. Obama in his last answer. Worse, he stated plainly that he would continue the government’s disastrous policy of inaction. He attempts to justify his answer by saying “never again.” But he ignores the very definition of these simple words. By avoiding the word “genocide,” McCain avoids the moral responsibility of taking real action. McCain also uses the excuse that ‘we don’t want to make the situation worse.’
This is not a new concept. At a lunch gathering after a speech about the Bosnian genocide in 1993, Elie Wiesel spoke with Peter Tarnoff, the undersecretary for political affairs, begging that the United states liberate some of the concentration camps. Ralph Johnson, the principal deputy assistant secretary for European affairs, stated “We’re afraid that if we did try to liberate them, there would be retaliation and the prisoners inside would be killed.” Wisel said quietly, “Do you realize that that is precisely what the State Department said during World War II?” McCain is continuing the lack of action for fear of reprisal.
As an anti-genocide activist, the choice has never been clearer. Was Obama’s answer perfect? Of course not. He did not, for example, take into account that the African Union Peacekeepers are dangerously understaffed and unequipped. Logistical support would not alone solve the problem. Yet he’s on the right track. He’s bringing it up, and with help, could become the first president to take real action to directly end a genocide. With McCain, however, things do not look good for Darfuris. With his inaction, we would once again be hearing the hollow promise of never again.
As a Jew, this is terrifying. Jews know more then anything the dangerous effects of a genocide unstopped. They more than anyone else know the hypocrisy of inaction, the pain of empty promises. In this election, I’m breaking one of the cardinal rules of being an effective lobbyist. I cannot remain neutral with the stakes this high. What is before us are two options. Will we sit idly by while genocide takes place? Or will we rise to the occasion, take a stand, and finally make Never Again active polity, not just empty promises. The choice is ours.

Powell Backs Obama and Criticizes McCain Tactics

from www.nytimes.com


By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president on Sunday morning, calling him a “transformational figure” who has reached out to all Americans with an inclusive campaign and displayed “a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity” and “a depth of knowledge” in his approach to the nation’s problems.

The endorsement, on the NBC public-affairs program “Meet the Press,” was a major blow to Senator John McCain, who has been a good friend of Mr. Powell’s for decades. Mr. Powell, a Republican, has advised Mr. McCain in the past on foreign policy.

Mr. Powell told Tom Brokaw, the host of “Meet the Press,” that he had been disturbed in recent weeks by the negative tone of Mr. McCain’s campaign, particularly its focus on Mr. Obama’s passing relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s radical and founder of the Weather Underground. The McCain campaign has sought to promote the idea that Mr. Obama is “palling around with terrorists,” in the words of Mr. McCain’s running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, because of Mr. Obama’s weak links to Mr. Ayers.

“Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed-out terrorist,” Mr. Powell said. “Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?”

After the program’s taping, Mr. Powell told reporters that the thought of attacking Mr. Obama for Mr. Ayers was “over the top.”

Mr. Powell, who was secretary of state in the first term of President Bush, also said that he was concerned about Mr. McCain’s selection of Ms. Palin as his running mate and had come to the conclusion that she was the wrong choice.

“She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired, but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president,” Mr. Powell said during the taping.

Mr. Powell offered Mr. McCain a small dose of solace by calling him a different kind of Republican and said that he believed Mr. McCain would make a good president. The problem, he said, was that the Republican Party had moved further to the right “than I would like to see it,” and that over the last several weeks the approach of the party and Mr. McCain “has become narrower and narrower.”

Mr. Powell told later reporters that he believed that Mr. McCain would continue to carry forth standard Republican policies. “As gifted as he is, he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda, with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it,” Mr. Powell said. “But I think we need a generational change.”

On “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. McCain shrugged off the endorsement by Mr. Powell.“Well, I’ve always admired and respected General Powell,” he said. “We’re longtime friends. This doesn’t come as a surprise. But I’m also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state” — Henry A. Kissinger, James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander M. Haig — “and I’m proud to have the endorsement of well over 200 retired army generals and admirals. I respect and continue to respect and admire Secretary Powell.”

In offering his endorsement, Mr. Powell became the highest-profile Republican to add his support to the Democratic ticket. Although he told Mr. Brokaw that he would not campaign for Mr. Obama in the final two weeks of the race, he did not rule out accepting an appointment in an Obama administration, whether it were a formal position or a more advisory role.

When Mr. Brokaw asked if Mr. Powell would be interested in perhaps serving as an ambassador at large in Africa or taking on the task of resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinianas, Mr. Powell replied: “I served 40 years in government and I’m not looking forward to a position or an assignment. Of course, I have always said if a president asks you to do something, you have to consider it.”

Mr. Powell’s endorsement exposed a fundamental policy rift in the Republican party’s foreign-policy establishment between the so-called pragmatists, a number of whom have come to view the Iraq war or its execution as a mistake, and the neoconservatives , a competing camp whose thinking dominated President Bush’s first term and played a pivotal role in building the case for war.

Mr. Powell, who is of the pragmatist camp and has been critical of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war, was said by friends in recent months to be disturbed by some of the neoconservatives who have surrounded Mr. McCain as foreign-policy advisers in his presidential campaign. The McCain campaign’s top foreign-policy aide is Randy Scheunemann, who was a foreign-policy adviser to former Senators Trent Lott and Bob Dole and who has longtime ties to neoconservatives. In 2002, Mr. Scheunemann was a founder of the hawkish Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and was an enthusiastic supporter of Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile and Pentagon favorite who was viewed with suspicion and distaste at the State Department when Mr. Powell was its secretary.

Mr. Powell met with both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama in June in preparation to make a possible endorsement. He has said repeatedly in recent months that he wanted to wait until after the political conventions and the presidential debates before making a decision.

Mr. Powell’s support of Mr. Obama was not a surprise to people who know him well and within Washington’s foreign policy establishment, but the Obama campaign welcomed it as a powerful reassurance to voters about Mr. Obama’s national-security credentials. Other voters, however, could discount it as an action of a disgruntled member of the Bush administration or as simply the support of one African-American for another. Mr. Powell also told reporters on Sunday that he was troubled that a number of Americans believe that Mr. Obama is a Muslim, although he did not directly link that supposition to the McCain campaign. At a recent town-hall style meeting during which an audience member said she thought that Mr. Obama was an “Arab,” Mr. McCain replied, “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man.”

“These are the kinds of images going out on Al Jazeera that are killing us around the world,” Mr. Powell said. “And we have got to say to the world it doesn’t make any difference who you are and what you are. If you’re an American, you’re an American.” Mr. Obama called Mr. Powell at 10 a.m. to thank him for the endorsement and told him “how honored he was to have it,” said Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama. The two spoke about 10 minutes.“He said he looked forward to taking advantage of his advice in the next two weeks and hopefully over the next four years,” Mr. Gibbs said.

The third debate... Joe Plumber

(CNN) – Joe the Plumber was the star of the final presidential debate on Wednesday night. But who is he?


Last weekend, while Barack Obama was canvassing for support in the small town of Holland, Ohio, the Democratic nominee ran into a tall, bald man, since dubbed Joe the plumber. He asked Obama if he believed in the American Dream — he said he was about to buy a company that makes more than $250,000 a year and was concerned that the Democratic nominee would tax him more because of it.

Obama explained his tax plan in depth, saying it’s better to lower taxes for Americans who make less money, so that they could afford to buy from his business. John McCain attacked Obama for this exchange, saying the Illinois senator is trying to “spread the wealth around.”

“We're going to take Joe's money, give it to Senator Obama, and let him spread the wealth around. I want Joe the plumber to spread the wealth around,” McCain said. He added, “Why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now? Why would you want to do that to anyone, anyone in America, when we have such a tough time?”

Joe the plumber was mentioned 11 times at the beginning of the debate, nine times by McCain and twice by Obama.

see the exchange here


Looks like a planter to me... even so, notice how mature and calm Obama remains.

Officials warned Palin aides about trooper feud, report finds

from cnn.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Top state police officials urged Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's aides and husband to stop pushing for the firing of her ex-brother-in-law, with one warning it could cause "an extreme amount of discomfort and embarrassment."

That warning from John Glass, Alaska's deputy commissioner of public safety, is included in a state investigator's report that found Palin unlawfully abused her authority to press for the dismissal of Mike Wooten, her sister's ex-husband, from the state trooper force.

Glass said he warned Palin's husband, Todd, that disciplinary action already had been taken against the trooper and that "we could not fire him," according to the report, which was released Friday.

"And I also warned him that it was going to cause some extreme amount of discomfort and embarrassment for the governor if they pursued this and it should never have become public. That it would just be not good for the governor if it continued, and that they needed to cease and desist," Glass told former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower, the report's author.

The report was commissioned by a bipartisan Alaska Legislature committee panel investigating Palin's July dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The report found Monegan's refusal to fire Wooten was "likely a contributing factor" to Monegan's dismissal, but Palin -- now the running mate of GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain -- had the authority as governor to fire him.

The report, however, also states Palin's efforts to get Wooten fired broke a state ethics law that bars public officials from pursuing personal interest through official action. VideoWatch a legal expert discuss the report's conclusions »

Glass is a former police chief of Palin's hometown of Wasilla and a snowmobiling friend of Todd Palin. In Todd Palin's account of Glass' warning, which took place in early spring 2008, he said Glass told him, "I'm telling you as a friend, I love the governor, but I am telling you, stay away from this Wooten situation."

"I felt it was more of the same with troopers protecting a 'brother' officer," Todd Palin told Branchflower in written answers provided through his attorney. They were delivered on Wednesday, after he had resisted a subpoena for three weeks, and were not included in Friday's report.

Glass said Sarah Palin had been questioning the loyalty of state police officials before Monegan's firing. But Glass added: "I don't think there's anybody that would really question our loyalty to her, because we have been trying to avoid this whole situation."

The Branchflower report found Todd Palin used the governor's office and its resources to press Monegan directly for Wooten's firing, and that the governor did nothing to stop it.

Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein said Monday that Branchflower's conclusion that Palin had violated state ethics law was wrong, because no financial interest was involved. Palin told reporters over the weekend that she had been "cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there."

In September, McCain-Palin campaign officials said Monegan was fired for insubordination when he continued to press for programs the governor opposed. Documents and statements released by Palin's office show Monegan had clashed with administration officials over budget issues.

Monegan has said he never received a direct order to fire Wooten. But he told Branchflower that complaints from Todd Palin and administration officials were the "central theme" of his 17-month tenure.

"So obviously, in my mind, the governor wanted me to fire Mike Wooten," Monegan said, according to the report.

In the report, Monegan and Glass say they warned state officials that they could be sued personally for a wrongful dismissal. Monegan said he told former Palin chief of staff Mike Tibbles that Wooten could "own your house" if he sued. Glass said he delivered a similar warning to Frank Bailey, a Palin adviser who had called a state police lieutenant to raise complaints about Wooten.

Palin has repeatedly described Wooten as a "rogue trooper" who threatened her family during his 2005 divorce from her sister. Complaints from her family led to a five-day suspension for Wooten in 2006 after his superiors determined he illegally shot a moose using his wife's hunting permit, drove his patrol car with an open beer and used a Taser on his 10-year-old stepson "in a training capacity."

Glass said he was "livid" after the Ketchikan-based lieutenant reported Bailey's call to him and told Bailey that Wooten already had been suspended for the same complaints.

"If we did go back and fire him for that, it would probably be viewed upon by, you know, the courts and stuff that it would be a wrongful discharge," Glass recounted. "When you do fire somebody wrongfully like that and you do so outside the scope of your employment, you then become personally liable for that."

Bailey's call to Lt. Rodney Dial -- which was recorded by the Ketchikan dispatch system -- was disclosed by Palin in an August news conference in which she pledged to cooperate with the Branchflower investigation. Bailey told Glass he called Dial because Dial used to attend the same church as the governor.

In a sworn statement submitted to Branchflower, Bailey said he "overstepped my boundaries" with the call.

"I should not have spoken for the governor, or Todd for that matter," he said. "I went out on my own in this discussion."

Violations of the state's Executive Branch Ethics Act are assessed by the Alaska Personnel Board and can lead to a fine of up to $5,000.

The governor already has asked the Personnel Board to conduct its own investigation into Monegan's firing -- a move she launched after becoming McCain's vice presidential nominee, declaring the agency the proper legal venue for any investigation.

Palin and her husband are scheduled to give statements to the Personnel Board's investigator, Timothy Petumenos, on October 23 or 24, said Palin attorney Van Flein. He said he would be surprised if Petumenos did not read the Branchflower report, "but I do know he is going on his own individual investigation and is not going to rely on what Branchflower did."

The three-member board meets November 3, but its agenda does not list specific cases for review. Van Flein said he did not know whether the governor's case would be addressed in that meeting, held the day before the presidential election.

Sunday editorial: Barack Obama for president

from the St. Louis Dispatch

Nine Days before the Feb. 5 presidential primaries in Missouri and Illinois, this editorial page endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain in their respective races.

We did so enthusiastically. We wrote that either Mr. Obama’s message of hope or Mr. McCain’s independence and integrity offered America “the chance to turn the page on 28 years of contentious, greed-driven politics and move into a new era of possibility.”

Over the past nine months, Mr. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has emerged as the only truly transformative candidate in the race. In the crucible that is a presidential campaign, his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure consistently have been impressive. He has surrounded himself with smart, capable advisers who have helped him refine thorough, nuanced policy positions.

In a word, Mr. Obama has been presidential.

Meanwhile, Mr. McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear.

He even shrank from his own campaign slogan, “County First,” by selecting the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall ran as William Jennings Bryan’s No. 2 in 1896.

In making political endorsements, this editorial page is guided first by the principles espoused by Joseph Pulitzer in The Post-Dispatch Platform printed daily at the top of this page. Then we consider questions of character, life experience and intellect, as well as specific policy and issue positions. Each member of the editorial board weighs in.

On all counts, the consensus was clear: Barack Obama of Illinois should be the next president of the United States.

We didn’t know nine months ago that before Election Day, America would face its greatest economic challenge since the Great Depression. The crisis on Wall Street is devastating, but it has offered voters a useful preview of how the two presidential candidates would respond to a crisis.

Very early on, Mr. Obama reached out to his impressive corps of economic advisers and developed a comprehensive set of recommendations for addressing the problems. He set them forth calmly and explained them carefully.

Mr. McCain, a longtime critic of government regulation, was late to recognize the threat. The chief economic adviser of his campaign initially was former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who had been one of the architects of banking deregulation. When the credit markets imploded, Mr. McCain lurched from one ineffectual grandstand play to another. He squandered the one clear advantage he had over Mr. Obama: experience.

Mr. McCain first was elected to Congress in 1982 when Mr. Obama was in his senior year at Columbia University. Yet the younger man’s intellectual curiosity and capacity — and, yes, also the skills he developed as a community organizer and his instincts as a political conciliator — more than compensate for his lack of more traditional Washington experience.

A presidency is defined less by what happens in the Oval Office than by what is done by the more than 3,000 men and women the president appoints to government office. Only 600 of them are subject to Senate approval. The rest serve at the pleasure of the president.

We have little doubt that Mr. Obama’s appointees would bring a level of competence, compassion and intellectual achievement to the executive branch that hasn’t been seen since the New Frontier. He has energized a new generation of Americans who would put the concept of service back in “public service.”

Consider that while Mr. McCain selected as his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a callow and shrill partisan, Mr. Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. Mr. Biden’s 35-year Senate career has given him encyclopedic expertise on legislative and judicial issues, as well as foreign affairs.

The idea that 3,000 bright, dedicated and accomplished Americans would be joining the Obama administration to serve the public — as opposed to padding their resumés or shilling for the corporate interests they’re sworn to oversee — is reassuring. That they would be serving a president who actually would listen to them is staggering.

And the fact that Mr. Obama can explain his thoughts and policies in language that can instruct and inspire is exciting. Eloquence isn’t everything in a president, but it is not nothing, either.

Experience aside, the 25-year difference in the ages of Mr. McCain, 72, and Mr. Obama, 47, is important largely because Mr. Obama’s election would represent a generational shift. He would be the first chief executive in more than six decades whose worldview was not formed, at least in part, by the Cold War or Vietnam.

He sees the complicated world as it is today, not as a binary division between us and them, but as a kaleidoscope of shifting alliances and interests. As he often notes, he is the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, an internationalist who yet acknowledges that America is the only nation in the world in which someone of his distinctly modest background could rise as far as his talent, intellect and hard work would take him.

Given the damage that has been done to America’s moral standing in the world in the last eight years — by a preemptory war, a unilateralist foreign policy and by policies that have treated both the Geneva Conventions and our own Bill of Rights as optional — Mr. Obama’s election would help America reclaim the moral high ground.

It also must be said that Mr. Obama is right on the issues. He was right on the war in Iraq. He is right that all Americans deserve access to health care and right in his pragmatic approach to meeting that goal. He is right on tax policy, infrastructure investment, energy policy and environmental issues. He is right on American ideals.

He was right when he said in his remarkable speech in March in Philadelphia that “In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.”

John McCain has served his country well, but in the end, he may have wanted the presidency a little too much, so much that he has sacrificed some of the principles that made him a heroic figure in war and in peace. In every way possible, he has earned the right to retire.

Finally, only at this late point do we note that Barack Obama is an African-American. Because of who he is and how he has run his campaign, that fact has become almost incidental to most Americans. Instead, his countrymen are weighing his talents, his values and his beliefs, judging him not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.

That says something profound and good — about him as a candidate and about us as a nation.

Ask Alaskans, Palin Would Be Disaster

by J-Michael Cabosky, www.sirened.com

When vetting a political candidate, it’s always best to check with the locals. It seems John McCain may not have done that, which isn’t a surprise as he only met Palin once in his life before he picked her.

The Anchorage and Fairbanks papers are ripping Palin today. And, as journalists in Alaska are often looking for the next big job, they first have to find the next big story meaning, they will try to find EVERYTHING out about Palin. Of course, this shouldn’t be too hard when they only have to talk a few thousand folks.

The Huffington Post has it all:

For the past 24 hours, the pages and web sites of the two leading papers up there have raised all sorts of issues surrounding Palin, from her ethics problems to general lack of readiness for this big step up. Right now the top story on the Anchorage Daily News web site looks at new info in what it calls “troopergate” and opens: “Alaska’s former commissioner of public safety says Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s pick to be vice president, personally talked him on two occasions about a state trooper who was locked in a bitter custody battle with the governor’s sister.

“In a phone conversation Friday night, Walt Monegan, who was Alaska’s top cop until Palin fired him July 11, told the Daily News that the governor also had e-mailed him two or three times about her ex-brother-in-law, Trooper Mike Wooten, though the e-mails didn’t mention Wooten by name. Monegan claims his refusal to fire Wooten was a major reason that Palin dismissed him. Wooten had been suspended for five days previously, based largely on complaints that Palin’s family had initiated before Palin was governor.”

A reporter for the Anchorage daily, Gregg Erickson, even did an online chat with the Washington Post, in which he revealed that Palin’s approval rating in the state was not the much-touted 80%, but 65% and sinking — and that among journalists who followed her it might be in the “teens.” He added: “I have a hard time seeing how her qualifications stack up against the duties and responsibilities of being president…. I expect her to stick with simple truths. When asked about continued American troop presence in Iraq, she said she knows only one thing about that (I paraphrase): no one has attacked the American homeland since George Bush took the war to Iraq.”

His paper found a number of leading Republican officeholders in the state who mocked Palin’s qualifications. “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” said Lyda Green, the president of the State Senate, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?”

Another top Republican, John Harris, the speaker of the House, when asked about her qualifications for Veep, replied with this: “She’s old enough. She’s a U.S. citizen.”

Here are excerpts from the editorials in the two leading papers.

From the Daily News-Miner in Fairbanks:

Sen. John McCain’s selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate was a stunning decision that should make Alaskans proud, even while we wonder about the actual merits of the choice…. Alaskans and Americans must ask, though, whether she should become vice president and, more importantly, be placed first in line to become president.

In fact, as the governor herself acknowledged in her acceptance speech, she never set out to be involved in public affairs. She has never publicly demonstrated the kind of interest, much less expertise, in federal issues and foreign affairs that should mark a candidate for the second-highest office in the land. Republicans rightfully have criticized the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, for his lack of experience, but Palin is a neophyte in comparison; how will Republicans reconcile the criticism of Obama with the obligatory cheering for Palin?

Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. McCain seems to have put his political interests ahead of the nation’s when he created the possibility that she might fill it.

And from the Anchorage Daily News:

It’s stunning that someone with so little national and international experience might be heartbeat away from the presidency.

Gov. Palin is a classic Alaska story. She is an example of the opportunity our state offers to those with talent, initiative and determination…

McCain picked Palin despite a recent blemish on her ethically pure resume. While she was governor, members of her family and staff tried to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the Alaska State Troopers. Her public safety commissioner would not do so; she forced him out, supposedly for other reasons. While she runs for vice-president, the Legislature has an investigator on the case.

For all those advantages, Palin joins the ticket with one huge weakness: She’s a total beginner on national and international issues.

Gov. Palin will have to spend the next two months convincing Americans that she’s ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency….

The Choice

from www.newyorker.com

Never in living memory has an election been more critical than the one fast approaching—that’s the quadrennial cliché, as expected as the balloons and the bombast. And yet when has it ever felt so urgently true? When have so many Americans had so clear a sense that a Presidency has—at the levels of competence, vision, and integrity—undermined the country and its ideals?

The incumbent Administration has distinguished itself for the ages. The Presidency of George W. Bush is the worst since Reconstruction, so there is no mystery about why the Republican Party—which has held dominion over the executive branch of the federal government for the past eight years and the legislative branch for most of that time—has little desire to defend its record, domestic or foreign. The only speaker at the Convention in St. Paul who uttered more than a sentence or two in support of the President was his wife, Laura. Meanwhile, the nominee, John McCain, played the part of a vaudeville illusionist, asking to be regarded as an apostle of change after years of embracing the essentials of the Bush agenda with ever-increasing ardor.

The Republican disaster begins at home. Even before taking into account whatever fantastically expensive plan eventually emerges to help rescue the financial system from Wall Street’s long-running pyramid schemes, the economic and fiscal picture is bleak. During the Bush Administration, the national debt, now approaching ten trillion dollars, has nearly doubled. Next year’s federal budget is projected to run a half-trillion-dollar deficit, a precipitous fall from the seven-hundred-billion-dollar surplus that was projected when Bill Clinton left office. Private-sector job creation has been a sixth of what it was under President Clinton. Five million people have fallen into poverty. The number of Americans without health insurance has grown by seven million, while average premiums have nearly doubled. Meanwhile, the principal domestic achievement of the Bush Administration has been to shift the relative burden of taxation from the rich to the rest. For the top one per cent of us, the Bush tax cuts are worth, on average, about a thousand dollars a week; for the bottom fifth, about a dollar and a half. The unfairness will only increase if the painful, yet necessary, effort to rescue the credit markets ends up preventing the rescue of our health-care system, our environment, and our physical, educational, and industrial infrastructure.

At the same time, a hundred and fifty thousand American troops are in Iraq and thirty-three thousand are in Afghanistan. There is still disagreement about the wisdom of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and his horrific regime, but there is no longer the slightest doubt that the Bush Administration manipulated, bullied, and lied the American public into this war and then mismanaged its prosecution in nearly every aspect. The direct costs, besides an expenditure of more than six hundred billion dollars, have included the loss of more than four thousand Americans, the wounding of thirty thousand, the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis, and the displacement of four and a half million men, women, and children. Only now, after American forces have been fighting for a year longer than they did in the Second World War, is there a glimmer of hope that the conflict in Iraq has entered a stage of fragile stability.

The indirect costs, both of the war in particular and of the Administration’s unilateralist approach to foreign policy in general, have also been immense. The torture of prisoners, authorized at the highest level, has been an ethical and a public-diplomacy catastrophe. At a moment when the global environment, the global economy, and global stability all demand a transition to new sources of energy, the United States has been a global retrograde, wasteful in its consumption and heedless in its policy. Strategically and morally, the Bush Administration has squandered the American capacity to counter the example and the swagger of its rivals. China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other illiberal states have concluded, each in its own way, that democratic principles and human rights need not be components of a stable, prosperous future. At recent meetings of the United Nations, emboldened despots like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran came to town sneering at our predicament and hailing the “end of the American era.”

The election of 2008 is the first in more than half a century in which no incumbent President or Vice-President is on the ballot. There is, however, an incumbent party, and that party has been lucky enough to find itself, apparently against the wishes of its “base,” with a nominee who evidently disliked George W. Bush before it became fashionable to do so. In South Carolina in 2000, Bush crushed John McCain with a sub-rosa primary campaign of such viciousness that McCain lashed out memorably against Bush’s Christian-right allies. So profound was McCain’s anger that in 2004 he flirted with the possibility of joining the Democratic ticket under John Kerry. Bush, who took office as a “compassionate conservative,” governed immediately as a rightist ideologue. During that first term, McCain bolstered his reputation, sometimes deserved, as a “maverick” willing to work with Democrats on such issues as normalizing relations with Vietnam, campaign-finance reform, and immigration reform. He co-sponsored, with John Edwards and Edward Kennedy, a patients’ bill of rights. In 2001 and 2003, he voted against the Bush tax cuts. With John Kerry, he co-sponsored a bill raising auto-fuel efficiency standards and, with Joseph Lieberman, a cap-and-trade regime on carbon emissions. He was one of a minority of Republicans opposed to unlimited drilling for oil and gas off America’s shores.

Since the 2004 election, however, McCain has moved remorselessly rightward in his quest for the Republican nomination. He paid obeisance to Jerry Falwell and preachers of his ilk. He abandoned immigration reform, eventually coming out against his own bill. Most shocking, McCain, who had repeatedly denounced torture under all circumstances, voted in February against a ban on the very techniques of “enhanced interrogation” that he himself once endured in Vietnam—as long as the torturers were civilians employed by the C.I.A.

On almost every issue, McCain and the Democratic Party’s nominee, Barack Obama, speak the generalized language of “reform,” but only Obama has provided a convincing, rational, and fully developed vision. McCain has abandoned his opposition to the Bush-era tax cuts and has taken up the demagogic call—in the midst of recession and Wall Street calamity, with looming crises in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—for more tax cuts. Bush’s expire in 2011. If McCain, as he has proposed, cuts taxes for corporations and estates, the benefits once more would go disproportionately to the wealthy.

In Washington, the craze for pure market triumphalism is over. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson arrived in town (via Goldman Sachs) a Republican, but it seems that he will leave a Democrat. In other words, he has come to see that the abuses that led to the current financial crisis––not least, excessive speculation on borrowed capital––can be fixed only with government regulation and oversight. McCain, who has never evinced much interest in, or knowledge of, economic questions, has had little of substance to say about the crisis. His most notable gesture of concern—a melodramatic call last month to suspend his campaign and postpone the first Presidential debate until the government bailout plan was ready—soon revealed itself as an empty diversionary tactic.

By contrast, Obama has made a serious study of the mechanics and the history of this economic disaster and of the possibilities of stimulating a recovery. Last March, in New York, in a speech notable for its depth, balance, and foresight, he said, “A complete disdain for pay-as-you-go budgeting, coupled with a generally scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement, allowed far too many to put short-term gain ahead of long-term consequences.” Obama is committed to reforms that value not only the restoration of stability but also the protection of the vast majority of the population, which did not partake of the fruits of the binge years. He has called for greater and more programmatic regulation of the financial system; the creation of a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank, which would help reverse the decay of our roads, bridges, and mass-transit systems, and create millions of jobs; and a major investment in the green-energy sector.

On energy and global warming, Obama offers a set of forceful proposals. He supports a cap-and-trade program to reduce America’s carbon emissions by eighty per cent by 2050—an enormously ambitious goal, but one that many climate scientists say must be met if atmospheric carbon dioxide is to be kept below disastrous levels. Large emitters, like utilities, would acquire carbon allowances, and those which emit less carbon dioxide than their allotment could sell the resulting credits to those which emit more; over time, the available allowances would decline. Significantly, Obama wants to auction off the allowances; this would provide fifteen billion dollars a year for developing alternative-energy sources and creating job-training programs in green technologies. He also wants to raise federal fuel-economy standards and to require that ten per cent of America’s electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2012. Taken together, his proposals represent the most coherent and far-sighted strategy ever offered by a Presidential candidate for reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels.

There was once reason to hope that McCain and Obama would have a sensible debate about energy and climate policy. McCain was one of the first Republicans in the Senate to support federal limits on carbon dioxide, and he has touted his own support for a less ambitious cap-and-trade program as evidence of his independence from the White House. But, as polls showed Americans growing jittery about gasoline prices, McCain apparently found it expedient in this area, too, to shift course. He took a dubious idea—lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling—and placed it at the very center of his campaign. Opening up America’s coastal waters to drilling would have no impact on gasoline prices in the short term, and, even over the long term, the effect, according to a recent analysis by the Department of Energy, would be “insignificant.” Such inconvenient facts, however, are waved away by a campaign that finally found its voice with the slogan “Drill, baby, drill!”

The contrast between the candidates is even sharper with respect to the third branch of government. A tense equipoise currently prevails among the Justices of the Supreme Court, where four hard-core conservatives face off against four moderate liberals. Anthony M. Kennedy is the swing vote, determining the outcome of case after case.

McCain cites Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, two reliable conservatives, as models for his own prospective appointments. If he means what he says, and if he replaces even one moderate on the current Supreme Court, then Roe v. Wade will be reversed, and states will again be allowed to impose absolute bans on abortion. McCain’s views have hardened on this issue. In 1999, he said he opposed overturning Roe; by 2006, he was saying that its demise “wouldn’t bother me any”; by 2008, he no longer supported adding rape and incest as exceptions to his party’s platform opposing abortion.

But scrapping Roe—which, after all, would leave states as free to permit abortion as to criminalize it—would be just the beginning. Given the ideological agenda that the existing conservative bloc has pursued, it’s safe to predict that affirmative action of all kinds would likely be outlawed by a McCain Court. Efforts to expand executive power, which, in recent years, certain Justices have nobly tried to resist, would likely increase. Barriers between church and state would fall; executions would soar; legal checks on corporate power would wither—all with just one new conservative nominee on the Court. And the next President is likely to make three appointments.

Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, voted against confirming not only Roberts and Alito but also several unqualified lower-court nominees. As an Illinois state senator, he won the support of prosecutors and police organizations for new protections against convicting the innocent in capital cases. While McCain voted to continue to deny habeas-corpus rights to detainees, perpetuating the Bush Administration’s regime of state-sponsored extra-legal detention, Obama took the opposite side, pushing to restore the right of all U.S.-held prisoners to a hearing. The judicial future would be safe in his care.

In the shorthand of political commentary, the Iraq war seems to leave McCain and Obama roughly even. Opposing it before the invasion, Obama had the prescience to warn of a costly and indefinite occupation and rising anti-American radicalism around the world; supporting it, McCain foresaw none of this. More recently, in early 2007 McCain risked his Presidential prospects on the proposition that five additional combat brigades could salvage a war that by then appeared hopeless. Obama, along with most of the country, had decided that it was time to cut American losses. Neither candidate’s calculations on Iraq have been as cheaply political as McCain’s repeated assertion that Obama values his career over his country; both men based their positions, right or wrong, on judgment and principle.

President Bush’s successor will inherit two wars and the realities of limited resources, flagging popular will, and the dwindling possibilities of what can be achieved by American power. McCain’s views on these subjects range from the simplistic to the unknown. In Iraq, he seeks “victory”—a word that General David Petraeus refuses to use, and one that fundamentally misrepresents the messy, open-ended nature of the conflict. As for Afghanistan, on the rare occasions when McCain mentions it he implies that the surge can be transferred directly from Iraq, which suggests that his grasp of counterinsurgency is not as firm as he insisted it was during the first Presidential debate. McCain always displays more faith in force than interest in its strategic consequences. Unlike Obama, McCain has no political strategy for either war, only the dubious hope that greater security will allow things to work out. Obama has long warned of deterioration along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and has a considered grasp of its vital importance. His strategy for both Afghanistan and Iraq shows an understanding of the role that internal politics, economics, corruption, and regional diplomacy play in wars where there is no battlefield victory.

Unimaginably painful personal experience taught McCain that war is above all a test of honor: maintain the will to fight on, be prepared to risk everything, and you will prevail. Asked during the first debate to outline “the lessons of Iraq,” McCain said, “I think the lessons of Iraq are very clear: that you cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to nearly lose a conflict.” A soldier’s answer––but a statesman must have a broader view of war and peace. The years ahead will demand not only determination but also diplomacy, flexibility, patience, judiciousness, and intellectual engagement. These are no more McCain’s strong suit than the current President’s. Obama, for his part, seems to know that more will be required than willpower and force to extract some advantage from the wreckage of the Bush years.

Obama is also better suited for the task of renewing the bedrock foundations of American influence. An American restoration in foreign affairs will require a commitment not only to international coöperation but also to international institutions that can address global warming, the dislocations of what will likely be a deepening global economic crisis, disease epidemics, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and other, more traditional security challenges. Many of the Cold War-era vehicles for engagement and negotiation—the United Nations, the World Bank, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—are moribund, tattered, or outdated. Obama has the generational outlook that will be required to revive or reinvent these compacts. He would be the first postwar American President unencumbered by the legacies of either Munich or Vietnam.

The next President must also restore American moral credibility. Closing Guantánamo, banning all torture, and ending the Iraq war as responsibly as possible will provide a start, but only that. The modern Presidency is as much a vehicle for communication as for decision-making, and the relevant audiences are global. Obama has inspired many Americans in part because he holds up a mirror to their own idealism. His election would do no less—and likely more—overseas.

What most distinguishes the candidates, however, is character—and here, contrary to conventional wisdom, Obama is clearly the stronger of the two. Not long ago, Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, said, “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” The view that this election is about personalities leaves out policy, complexity, and accountability. Even so, there’s some truth in what Davis said––but it hardly points to the conclusion that he intended.

Echoing Obama, McCain has made “change” one of his campaign mantras. But the change he has actually provided has been in himself, and it is not just a matter of altering his positions. A willingness to pander and even lie has come to define his Presidential campaign and its televised advertisements. A contemptuous duplicity, a meanness, has entered his talk on the stump—so much so that it seems obvious that, in the drive for victory, he is willing to replicate some of the same underhanded methods that defeated him eight years ago in South Carolina.

Perhaps nothing revealed McCain’s cynicism more than his choice of Sarah Palin, the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, who had been governor of that state for twenty-one months, as the Republican nominee for Vice-President. In the interviews she has given since her nomination, she has had difficulty uttering coherent unscripted responses about the most basic issues of the day. We are watching a candidate for Vice-President cram for her ongoing exam in elementary domestic and foreign policy. This is funny as a Tina Fey routine on “Saturday Night Live,” but as a vision of the political future it’s deeply unsettling. Palin has no business being the backup to a President of any age, much less to one who is seventy-two and in imperfect health. In choosing her, McCain committed an act of breathtaking heedlessness and irresponsibility. Obama’s choice, Joe Biden, is not without imperfections. His tongue sometimes runs in advance of his mind, providing his own fodder for late-night comedians, but there is no comparison with Palin. His deep experience in foreign affairs, the judiciary, and social policy makes him an assuring and complementary partner for Obama.

The longer the campaign goes on, the more the issues of personality and character have reflected badly on McCain. Unless appearances are very deceiving, he is impulsive, impatient, self-dramatizing, erratic, and a compulsive risk-taker. These qualities may have contributed to his usefulness as a “maverick” senator. But in a President they would be a menace.

By contrast, Obama’s transformative message is accompanied by a sense of pragmatic calm. A tropism for unity is an essential part of his character and of his campaign. It is part of what allowed him to overcome a Democratic opponent who entered the race with tremendous advantages. It is what helped him forge a political career relying both on the liberals of Hyde Park and on the political regulars of downtown Chicago. His policy preferences are distinctly liberal, but he is determined to speak to a broad range of Americans who do not necessarily share his every value or opinion. For some who oppose him, his equanimity even under the ugliest attack seems like hauteur; for some who support him, his reluctance to counterattack in the same vein seems like self-defeating detachment. Yet it is Obama’s temperament—and not McCain’s—that seems appropriate for the office both men seek and for the volatile and dangerous era in which we live. Those who dismiss his centeredness as self-centeredness or his composure as indifference are as wrong as those who mistook Eisenhower’s stolidity for denseness or Lincoln’s humor for lack of seriousness.

Nowadays, almost every politician who thinks about running for President arranges to become an author. Obama’s books are different: he wrote them. “The Audacity of Hope” (2006) is a set of policy disquisitions loosely structured around an account of his freshman year in the United States Senate. Though a campaign manifesto of sorts, it is superior to that genre’s usual blowsy pastiche of ghostwritten speeches. But it is Obama’s first book, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance” (1995), that offers an unprecedented glimpse into the mind and heart of a potential President. Obama began writing it in his early thirties, before he was a candidate for anything. Not since Theodore Roosevelt has an American politician this close to the pinnacle of power produced such a sustained, highly personal work of literary merit before being definitively swept up by the tides of political ambition.

A Presidential election is not the awarding of a Pulitzer Prize: we elect a politician and, we hope, a statesman, not an author. But Obama’s first book is valuable in the way that it reveals his fundamental attitudes of mind and spirit. “Dreams from My Father” is an illuminating memoir not only in the substance of Obama’s own peculiarly American story but also in the qualities he brings to the telling: a formidable intelligence, emotional empathy, self-reflection, balance, and a remarkable ability to see life and the world through the eyes of people very different from himself. In common with nearly all other senators and governors of his generation, Obama does not count military service as part of his biography. But his life has been full of tests—personal, spiritual, racial, political—that bear on his preparation for great responsibility.

It is perfectly legitimate to call attention, as McCain has done, to Obama’s lack of conventional national and international policymaking experience. We, too, wish he had more of it. But office-holding is not the only kind of experience relevant to the task of leading a wildly variegated nation. Obama’s immersion in diverse human environments (Hawaii’s racial rainbow, Chicago’s racial cauldron, countercultural New York, middle-class Kansas, predominantly Muslim Indonesia), his years of organizing among the poor, his taste of corporate law and his grounding in public-interest and constitutional law—these, too, are experiences. And his books show that he has wrung from them every drop of insight and breadth of perspective they contained.

The exhaustingly, sometimes infuriatingly long campaign of 2008 (and 2007) has had at least one virtue: it has demonstrated that Obama’s intelligence and steady temperament are not just figments of the writer’s craft. He has made mistakes, to be sure. (His failure to accept McCain’s imaginative proposal for a series of unmediated joint appearances was among them.) But, on the whole, his campaign has been marked by patience, planning, discipline, organization, technological proficiency, and strategic astuteness. Obama has often looked two or three moves ahead, relatively impervious to the permanent hysteria of the hourly news cycle and the cable-news shouters. And when crisis has struck, as it did when the divisive antics of his ex-pastor threatened to bring down his campaign, he has proved equal to the moment, rescuing himself with a speech that not only drew the poison but also demonstrated a profound respect for the electorate. Although his opponents have tried to attack him as a man of “mere” words, Obama has returned eloquence to its essential place in American politics. The choice between experience and eloquence is a false one––something that Lincoln, out of office after a single term in Congress, proved in his own campaign of political and national renewal. Obama’s “mere” speeches on everything from the economy and foreign affairs to race have been at the center of his campaign and its success; if he wins, his eloquence will be central to his ability to govern.

We cannot expect one man to heal every wound, to solve every major crisis of policy. So much of the Presidency, as they say, is a matter of waking up in the morning and trying to drink from a fire hydrant. In the quiet of the Oval Office, the noise of immediate demands can be deafening. And yet Obama has precisely the temperament to shut out the noise when necessary and concentrate on the essential. The election of Obama—a man of mixed ethnicity, at once comfortable in the world and utterly representative of twenty-first-century America—would, at a stroke, reverse our country’s image abroad and refresh its spirit at home. His ascendance to the Presidency would be a symbolic culmination of the civil- and voting-rights acts of the nineteen-sixties and the century-long struggles for equality that preceded them. It could not help but say something encouraging, even exhilarating, about the country, about its dedication to tolerance and inclusiveness, about its fidelity, after all, to the values it proclaims in its textbooks. At a moment of economic calamity, international perplexity, political failure, and battered morale, America needs both uplift and realism, both change and steadiness. It needs a leader temperamentally, intellectually, and emotionally attuned to the complexities of our troubled globe. That leader’s name is Barack Obama.

—The Editors

Voting begins in US state of Ohio

from news.bbc.co.uk

Early voting is getting under way in the US battleground state of Ohio, five weeks exactly before the 4 November presidential election.

It comes a day after Ohio courts ruled that new voters could register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day.

Republicans, who argue same-day voting opens the door to voter fraud, opposed the measure; Democrats backed it.

Both John McCain and Barack Obama have been campaigning hard in Ohio, seen as a key swing state.

John McCain, accompanied by running mate Sarah Palin, used a rally in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday to attack his Democratic rival over his economic policies.

Mrs Palin, Republican governor of Alaska, is preparing for the vice-presidential debate scheduled for Thursday night, in which she and Democrat Joe Biden will face each other for the first time.

She has come under increasing pressure after a series of TV interviews which critics say have exposed her lack of readiness for the role.

Minorities

Monday's Ohio Supreme Court decision, backed by two federal judges, cleared the way for same-day registration and voting during a week-long period up to 6 October, when voter registration ends.

The ruling was welcomed by state Democrats, who hope to encourage college students and other groups such as minorities, the poor and the homeless to make use of the same-day voting period.

Previously, voters had to be registered for at least 30 days before receiving an absentee ballot, which tended to reduce participation among such voter groups. They often favour the Democrats.

The ruling was seen as a victory for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, who had been criticised by Republicans for telling county election organisers to allow same-day voting.

Both Mr Obama's campaign and the Republican National Committee have urged supporters to make use of Ohio's 35-day early voting period to cast their absentee ballots.

The ballots can be sent by post to voters' county election boards or delivered in person to designated places.

The Obama campaign has organised shared car rides from college campuses to early voting sites, the Associated Press news agency reports. Organisations that seek to increase participation in elections by the poor and homeless are also offering transport to voting sites.

Ohio was an important swing state in 2004, when it went to President George W Bush by a narrow margin, helping him to re-election.

A number of states, including the battleground states of Iowa, Virginia, Nevada, New Mexico and North Carolina, allow early and absentee voting.

Some voters prefer it because they fear potential problems and long queues at polling stations on election day.

The Obama campaign believes its strong on-the-ground organisation in many states could give it an advantage in encouraging people to cast their ballot early.

The Bully in Fiji- My Holiday with McCain

By ANASUYA DUBEY

It was just before John McCain's last run at the presidential nomination in 2000 that my husband and I vacationed in Turtle Island in Fiji with John McCain, Cindy, and their children, including Bridget (their adopted Bangladeshi child). It was not our intention, but it was our misfortune to be in close quarters with John McCain for almost a week since Turtle Island has a small number of bungalows and their focus on communal meals force all vacationers who are there at the same time to get to know each other intimately. He arrived at our first group meal and started reading quotes from a pile of William Faulkner books with a forest of Post-Its sticking out of them. As an English Literature major myself, my first thought was "if he likes this so much, why hasn't he memorized any of this yet?" I soon realized that McCain actually thought we had come on vacation to be a volunteer audience for his "readings" which then became a regular part of each meal. Out of politeness, none of the vacationers initially protested at this intrusion into their blissful holiday, but people's buttons definitely got pushed as the readings continued day after day.

Unfortunately this was not his only contribution to our mealtime entertainment. He waxed on during one meal about how Indo-Chinese women had the best figures and that our American corn-fed women just couldn't meet up to this standard. He also made it a point that all of us should stop Cindy from having dessert as her weight was too high and made a few comments to Amy, the 25 year old wife of the honeymooning couple from Nebraska that she should eat less as she needed to lose weight.

McCain's appreciation of the beauty of Asian women was so great that David the American economist had to move his Thai wife to the other side of the table from McCain as McCain kept aggressively flirting with and touching her.

Needless to say I was irritated at his large ego, and his rude behavior towards his wife and other women, but decided he must have some redeeming qualities as he had adopted a handicapped child from Bangladesh. I asked him about this one day and his response was shocking. "Oh, that was Cindy's idea - I didn't have anything to do with it. She just went and adopted this thing without even asking me. You can't imagine how people stare when I wheel this ugly, black thing around in a shopping cart in Arizona. No, it wasn't my idea at all."

I actively avoided McCain after that, but unfortunately one day he engaged me in a political discussion which soon got us on the topic of the active US bombing of Iraq at that time. I was shocked when he said "if I was in charge, I would nuke Iraq to teach them a lesson". Given McCain's personal experience with the horrors of war I had expected a more balanced point of view.

I commented on the tragic consequences of the nuclear attacks on Japan during WWII - but no, he was not to be dissuaded. He went on to say that if it was up to him he would have dropped many more nuclear bombs on Japan. I rapidly extricated myself from this conversation as I could tell that his experience being tortured as a POW didn't seem to have mellowed out his perspective but rather had made him more aggressive, and vengeful towards the world.

My final encounter with McCain was on the morning that he was leaving Turtle Island. Amy and I were happily eating pancakes when McCain arrived and told Amy that she shouldn't be having pancakes because she needed to lose weight. Amy burst into tears at this abusive comment. I felt fiercely protective of Amy and immediately turned to McCain and told him to leave her alone. He became very angry and abusive towards me and said "don't you know who I am" and I looked him in the face and said "yes, you are the biggest asshole I have ever met" and headed back to my cabin. I am happy to say that later that day when I arrived at lunch I was given a standing ovation by all the guests for having stood up to McCain's bullying.

Although I have shared my McCain story informally with friends, this is the first time I am making this public. I almost did so in 2000, when McCain first announced his bid for the Republican nomination but it soon became apparent that George Bush was the shoo-in candidate and so I did not act then. However, now that there is a very real possibility that McCain could be elected as our next president, I feel it is my duty as an American citizen to share this story.

I can't imagine a more scary outcome for America than that this abusive, aggressive man should lead our nation. I have observed him in intimate surroundings as he really is, not how the media portrays him to be. If his attitudes toward women, and his treatment of his own family are even a small indicator of his real personality, then I shudder to think what will happen to America were he to be elected as our President.



Anasuya Dubey is a clinical psychologist in California.

2 Videos...

Sarah Palin speaks to Katie Couric on the relationship between Alaska and Russia..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhjxZGdr06I

...And to Charlie Gibson about the Bush Doctrine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z75QSExE0jU

Remember, she is ONE HEARTBEAT away if she becomes Vice President

Alaska lawmakers: McCain campaign interfering in Palin probe

from www.cnn.com

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Lawmakers investigating Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner accused the McCain-Palin campaign on Thursday of stonewalling the probe by helping witnesses refuse to comply with subpoenas.

A state Senate committee subpoenaed Palin's husband, several top aides and other advisers earlier this month, but none of those served with demands for testimony appeared before the panel when it met last week.

The panel is scheduled to meet again Friday. A member of the committee said Thursday that he expects more no-shows.

In court filings, lawyers for Hollis French, the Democratic state senator overseeing the probe, and Stephen Branchflower, the attorney hired to conduct it, say Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign has moved "on many fronts" to kill the investigation since Palin became the Republican vice presidential nominee.

"Indeed, recent events demonstrate that witnesses or participants who want to stonewall Mr. Branchflower's fact-finding inquiry can count on plenty of assistance from lawyers and McCain campaign operatives," the filings state.

The filings came in response to lawsuits that Palin's allies filed last week seeking to stop the probe. The suits name as defendants the Alaska Legislative Council, the Republican-dominated committee that authorized the investigation in July, and its chairman, Democratic state Sen. Kim Elton.

The response calls the suits "clearly meritless" and "political, not legal" documents.

The McCain campaign has said that Palin will cooperate with a state Personnel Board investigation instead of the legislative probe, which the campaign has described as being "tainted" with partisan politics.

"Since Gov. Palin was named the Republican [vice] presidential nominee, it comes as little surprise that the Obama supporters leading the legislative investigation would attempt to use the proceedings to the political advantage of their candidate," said Taylor Griffin, a McCain-Palin campaign spokesman.

"All Gov. Palin is asking for is a fair and impartial review of the facts outside of the taint of partisan politics," Griffin said. "That's why she's cooperating with the Personnel Board."

Earlier this week, Democratic state Rep. Les Gara asked the state police to investigate whether state laws against witness tampering have been violated. Gara did not level allegations against a specific person, but said Republican operatives had been sent to Alaska to undermine the legislative probe.

"I think probably the McCain folks think this was just politics," Gara said Thursday. But he added, "All we know is they want to stop the investigation and suddenly the witnesses aren't talking. That's indisputable."

Ex-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan says he was sacked in July after he refused to fire the governor's ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper who was involved in an acrimonious divorce from Palin's sister.

Palin has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that Monegan was fired for insubordination after he continued to press for funding for projects the governor opposed.

Palin initially agreed to cooperate with the legislative probe and have her staff testify. But since she became McCain's running mate, she and her advisers have argued that the state Personnel Board is the proper agency to investigate.

Campaign aides have repeatedly attacked French for a September 2 interview in which he said the investigation could lead to an "October surprise" for the GOP ticket. The aides have called the probe "a politicized kangaroo court."

French's committee issued the subpoenas September 12. State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said none of the seven people ordered to testify since last week have filed requests to quash the subpoenas with a state court -- but he did not expect them to show for Friday's hearing.

"They should all be there, or they're breaking the law," Wielechowski, a Democrat, said.

The full Senate would have to vote on any sanctions against witnesses who refuse to appear. It does not convene again until January.

Palin's husband, Todd, was among the people who refused to appear last week. The couple's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, filed papers arguing the Legislature had no authority to investigate Monegan's firing, and that state law prevents ethics investigations of candidates for state office. The vice presidency is a federal office, however.

The legislative inquiry is scheduled to be completed by October 10. There is no deadline for the investigator hired by the Personnel Board to look into Monegan's firing.

On Tuesday, a Palin spokeswoman said the Personnel Board's investigator has requested confidentiality. The spokeswoman indicated the campaign would no longer answer questions about the probe.

Monegan has vehemently denied charges of insubordination and has told CNN he was a "team player" who never did anything without approval.

McCain's move: Putting priorities or politics first?

from www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's decision to suspend his campaign is being played by Democrats as a desperate ploy from a campaign in decline and by Republicans as a courageous move to rescue the economy.

The Arizona senator said he won't show up for Friday's presidential debate if no deal is reached on the government's $700 billion bailout proposal, leading Democrats to accuse him of looking for a distraction.

"I think it shows that John McCain is becoming increasingly desperate in his campaign," said Keith Boykin, a Democratic strategist and host of BET's "My Two Cents."

"It's an indication that John McCain shoots from the hip -- or more likely shoots from the lip -- every time he speaks, and he's not a guy who's got the judgment to make decisions," he said.

Conservative writer Matt Lewis called the notion that McCain is afraid to debate "laughable."

"Everybody knows that John McCain is very, very good at actually taking tough questions. I think what we have seen here today and yesterday, though, is an example of a statesmen," he said. "I think it's ludicrous to say that by wanting to put politics aside, John McCain is somehow injecting politics into the debate."

Democratic candidate Barack Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden on Thursday accused the Republicans of looking for a "distraction." VideoWatch more on the fate of the debate »

"They don't want to debate the issues with us," he said Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky. "They don't want to debate the issues ... because they know they really literally don't have a political leg to stand on."

McCain said Thursday that Washington needs "all hands on deck" to work on the government's proposed $700 billion bailout plan.

"I cannot carry on a campaign as though this dangerous situation had not occurred, or as though a solution were at hand, which it clearly is not," McCain said in New York. "With so much on the line, for America and the world, the debate that matters most right now is taking place in the United States Capitol. I intend to join it."

Democrats have also implied that McCain is trying to buy more time for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. McCain suggested having the presidential debate take the place of next Thursday's vice presidential debate, and moving that one to a later date.

But Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, called McCain's decision to suspend his campaign the "greatest single act of responsibility ever taken by a presidential candidate."

"It is surprisingly irresponsible and politically dangerous for the Obama campaign to try and insist on a debate Friday night," he said.

McCain says he does not think the bailout proposal will pass as is, and he is returning to Washington to push what he sees as "fundamental improvements" to the legislation. VideoWatch more on McCain's big gamble »

Obama's campaign says they can take care of the bailout proposal and still hold the first presidential debate, scheduled to take place Friday in Oxford, Mississippi.

The University of Mississippi, which is hosting the debate, has already invested millions in preparing for it.

"I think we can do both of these things at the same time. The next president is going to face multiple crises on the same day," Robert Gibbs, Obama's top adviser, said on CNN's "American Morning."

"We've got a presidential debate scheduled. We've got a stage. We'll have an audience. My guess is we'll have a moderator and at least one of the presidential candidates," Gibbs said.

But considering that Obama and McCain are senators, Republican strategist Bay Buchanan said both candidates should focus on the bailout plan because it's their job. VideoWatch analysts weigh in on McCain's decision »

"They should be doing their job, especially at a time of crises when their vote, when their leadership could really make a difference in this bill," she said. "These fellows are the senators. It is their responsibility. It's what we pay them to do."

Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, said the debate is the most important thing the candidates could do right now.

"It's preposterous that we can't have a presidential debate in the middle of this economic crisis. We had a presidential campaign in 1864, when Sherman was marching on Atlanta. We had a presidential election in 1944, when D-Day was going on in Normandy," he said. "We can have a debate on Friday. In fact, it's probably the most important thing McCain and them could be doing, would be to debate the issues."

I-Reporters told CNN that no matter what, they want to see the debate go on.

Len Parks, an independent from Stockbridge, Georgia, said he liked both candidates, but now he will probably vote for Obama.

"It made no sense to me for him to suspend his campaign. I think he's kind of grandstanding here," Parks said.

Democrat Dereck Blackburn called canceling the debate a "political stunt."

"It's very disrespectful to the elections process and disrespectful to everyone who is involved," said Blackburn, who is from Manayunk, Pennsylvania.

And Republican Katy Brown, from Kent, Ohio, said in this situation, McCain needs to take Obama's advice.

"I want to see John McCain show up, I know he's trying to do his best, and I know it's his duty to be there for this vote on the economy and the $700 billion bailout. But he also needs to be there (at the debate) because Americans need to hear from him," she said. "So hopefully this doesn't hurt him, hopefully he takes Obama's advice and multitasks and shows up."

Alan Silverleib, CNN's senior political researcher, said only time will tell how McCain's political gamble will play out.

"What is going on here is that John McCain has been in a rut the last couple of weeks ever since this economic crisis broke. It plays to the economic advantage that Democrats have in this campaign," he said, noting that polls show that more people think Obama would do a better job handling an economic crisis than McCain.

Obama has been on a steady rise in national polls this past week. According to CNN's latest poll of polls, he now leads McCain by 5 percentage points.

"The Democrats, of course, are very afraid that McCain is going to swoop into these delicate negotiations on Capitol at last minute and when they reach an agreement, he's going to claim credit for having brought those negotiations to a successful conclusion," Silverleib said.

The bridge failed, but the 'Road to Nowhere' was built

Veteran senator's future on the line at trial

From Kevin Bohn
cnn.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The political future of one of the powerhouses of the U.S. Senate will most likely rest in the hands of a Washington jury that will begin hearing the corruption case against him Thursday morning.

Political experts say there is little doubt that the re-election campaign of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, will be determined by the jury's decision.

Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, was locked in a tight contest for his eighth term in the Senate with Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich before the indictment against him was returned at the end of July.

Stevens is charged with failing to report on his congressional disclosure forms renovations to his Alaska home paid for by the Alaska-based oil services corporation VECO and other gifts from the company.

Prosecutors allege that Stevens received more than $250,000 worth of goods and services, including a new first floor, garage and deck on his home and a new Land Rover -- exchanged for an older car -- and a gas grill.

Stevens is not charged with receiving bribes, although prosecutors allege in the indictment that the senator "could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO."

Known in Washington as combative and self-confident, Stevens has characteristically not backed down, maintaining his innocence and saying he paid for all bills related to the home renovation given to him. His defense attorneys pushed for a quick start to the proceedings, knowing that the charges would dominate the election campaign.

"I asked for a speedy trial because I wanted one," Stevens said Friday in Alaska. "I'm glad I'm having the chance to have one, because I have entered my plea and said I'm innocent of the charges against me. I think the trial will show that. I've urged Alaskans not to make a judgment about this situation until all the evidence is in and told them I have faith in our judicial, justice system and faith in myself."

Some legal experts believe that Stevens can beat the charges.

"How is the government going to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew the actual value of these renovations when he had asked, received and paid for bills for them?" former federal prosecutor Michael Levy asked, explaining the burden facing the Justice Department.

One possible tactic for the defense team, led by veteran attorney Brendan Sullivan, is to portray Stevens as a busy incumbent dealing with a multitude of important issues.

"If they paint him somewhat as a very busy or perhaps absent-minded individual who's not focused there, you could appeal to several jurors," former federal prosecutor Joshua Berman said. "After all, all of us have a lot going on in our lives, as do these jurors, and that may resonate with some of them."

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan this week granted Stevens' lawyers' request for him to miss some court sessions if there were key Senate votes happening.

"He is certainly known for being a very strong-willed man," said political analyst Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. "Now, there is a fine line here. You do not want to suggest to jurors or to a judge that you are dissing them."

Since Stevens will have to be in court most days of the trial, which is expected to last about a month, his ability to fly to Alaska to campaign will be dramatically limited, although he did say last week that he hoped to come back to the state at least "several times" in October.

As to whether he will take the witness stand himself, the senator said Friday, "That is up to my lawyers, but that is my intention."

However, the legal experts CNN spoke to were divided about whether he would testify.

Former prosecutor Berman said Stevens testifying could be the best way to explain away some of the government's key evidence.

"It's gonna be hard for Sen. Stevens to get away from the fact that he did receive these things of value," Berman said. "Two, he did not apparently disclose them on his financial form. And three, you've got the VECO executives ... who will testify in his trial against him."

The central witness against Stevens will be a former VECO chief executive officer who has pleaded guilty to bribing several Alaska state lawmakers and who was caught by the FBI on undercover video soliciting favors from them.

"Bill Allen is going to be central to this case. He's the primary accuser against Senator Stevens," Levy said. "The government is gonna say that he's finally come forward and is telling the truth about the relationship between VECO and Sen. Stevens. The defense is gonna sit there and say this is a man who's got more than a decade of jail time hanging over his head, and the only way he can save his own skin is to sing whatever song the prosecutors want him to sing, and that's all he's doing."

Stevens is the first sitting U.S. senator to face trial since 1981, when Harrison Williams, D-New Jersey, was convicted of bribery and conspiracy.

Opening statements in Stevens trial are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. ET at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Eleven women and five men make up the jury of 12 regular and four alternates. The jurors will not be told whether they are alternates until the end of the trial.

Rove: McCain went 'too far' in ads

from www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Former Bush adviser Karl Rove said Sunday that Sen. John McCain had gone "one step too far" in some of his recent ads attacking Sen. Barack Obama.

Rove has leveled similar criticism against Obama.

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far," he told Fox News, "and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."

The Obama campaign immediately leaped on the quote.

"In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove -- the man who held the previous record -- said McCain's ads have gone too far," said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a statement sent to reporters minutes after Rove's on-air comments. Rove masterminded both of President Bush's successful White House bids.

Rove said both candidates need to "be careful" about their attacks on each other.

"They ought to -- there ought to be an adult who says, 'Do we really need to go that far in this ad? Don't we make our point and won't we get broader acceptance and deny the opposition an opportunity to attack us if we don't include that one little last tweak in the ad?' " he said.

Obama on Saturday accused McCain and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin of avoiding the issues to "distort" his record.

"They're going to talk about pigs, and they're going to talk about lipstick; they're going to talk about Paris Hilton, they're going to talk about Britney Spears. They will try to distort my record, and they will try to undermine your trust in what the Democrats intend to do," he said at a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds criticized Obama for showing "zero restraint," considering what Gulf Coast residents were facing after Hurricane Ike. Bounds said the "attacks mark a new low from Barack Obama."

The Obama campaign shot back and accused McCain of "cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history."

McCain said last week that he thinks the tone of the campaign would be different had Obama agreed to appear with him in town hall meetings across the country.

Both McCain and Obama laid low on Sunday. McCain attended a NASCAR race in Loudon, New Hampshire.

Obama had no public events scheduled, but Sen. Hillary Clinton hit the trail for him in Akron, Ohio.

Clinton repeated her campaign one-liner -- "No way, no how, no McCain, no Palin."

The New York senator said "all that McCain and Palin offer is four more years of the same failed policies and wrong direction and disappointment and difficulties that have confronted our country."

"Barack and I may have started out on two separate paths, but we are on one journey now," she said.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced Sunday that it had raised $66 million in August. The new total bests the campaign's previous high of $55 million, which came in February during his tough primary fight with Clinton.

The Obama campaign said more than half a million new donors contributed in August, when the Illinois senator accepted the Democratic presidential nomination and named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. The campaign had more than $77 million in cash on hand at the end of August, compared with about $66 million in July.

On September 1, McCain's campaign reported raising $47 million in August. That haul also set a monthly record for the Arizona senator, whose campaign says it received a financial shot in the arm after McCain picked Palin to join the ticket.

Obama has rejected public financing, calling the system "broken" -- a decision that frees him to continue raising money for November.

McCain has accepted federal matching funds for his general election campaign, giving him $84 million to spend for November. The money comes with strict spending limits, but the Republican National Committee's victory fund can continue to raise and spend money on his behalf.

With Palin on the campaign trail, McCain has been seeing increased numbers and energy at his campaign events.

The two will hold joint town hall meetings sometime early this week.

A McCain adviser said early plans are to hold the town halls in western Michigan and Wisconsin, although the exact details of where and when they will be held are still being worked out.

FREE SARAH PALIN

Campbell Brown
(c) www.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Frankly I have had it, and I know a lot of other women out there who are with me on this. I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin. It has to end.

She was in New York on Tuesday meeting with world leaders at the U.N. And what did the McCain campaign do?

They tried to ban reporters from covering those meetings. And they did ban reporters from asking Gov. Palin any questions.

I call upon the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower who will wilt at any moment.

This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong, she is tough, she is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff.

Allow her to face down those pesky reporters just like Barack Obama did today, just like John McCain did today. Just like Joe Biden has done on numerous occasions. Let her have a real news conference with real questions.
"No bias, no bull"

By treating Sarah Palin differently from other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves.

Free Sarah Palin.

Free her from the chauvinistic chains you are binding her with.

Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do.

So let her act like one.

A Serious Foreign Policy Gaffe

A Serious Foreign Policy Gaffe
9/18/08
(http://www.nsnetwork.org)

John McCain last night refused to say whether he would invite Spain’s Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the White House. The interview - conducted in English and translated into Spanish – was with the Florida affiliate of Spain’s Union Radio. In the interview McCain appeared to have no idea who Prime Minister Zapatero was, apparently assuming he was a Latin American leader who might or might not be a friend of the United States. This confusion occurred despite the reporter explicitly saying “I’m talking about Spain.” Ironically, just before McCain was asked about Prime Minister Zapatero, he asserted “I know the issues, I know the leaders.” McCain’s confusion puts that statement in serious doubt. Spain is an important NATO ally, plays an extremely influential role in Latin America, was brutally attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists in 2004, has nearly 1000 troops in Afghanistan, has lost more than 20 soldiers in Afghanistan, and has the eighth largest economy in the world. Senator McCain has campaigned for President on his foreign policy experience. Such confusion over the leader of a very important ally raises serious doubts about John McCain’s foreign policy competence.

John McCain displays confusion over U.S. relations with Spain, a NATO ally. In an interview with a Spanish news outlet, John McCain “made a series of bizarre responses to a question regarding that country's prime minister.” The exchange comes at a sensitive time for the U.S.-Spanish relationship. In spite of Spain’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, the US has sought, starting last year, according to Secretary of State Rice, to look forward “to areas on which we can cooperate and work together.” The transcript follows:

Reporter: Let’s talk about Spain, if you are elected President would you be willing to invite Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to the White House to meet with you?

McCain: I would be willing to meet with those leaders who are friends and want to work with us in a cooperative fashion. And by the way President Calderon of Mexico is fighting a very very tough fight against the drug cartels... I attend to move forward with relations and invite as many of them as I can, of those leaders, to the White House.

Reporter: Would that invitation be extended to the Zapatero government, to the President, itself.

McCain: Uhh.. I honestly have to look at the relations and the situations and the priorities but I can assure you I will establish closer relations with our friends and I will stand up to those who want to do harm to the United States of America. I know how to do both.

Reporter: So you have to wait and see if he’s willing to meet with you…will you be able to do it in the White House?

McCain: All I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the Hemisphere that are friends with us and standing up to those who are not and that’s judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region.

Reporter: Okay what about Eur… I am talking about the President of Spain.

McCain: What about me what?

Reporter: Are you willing to meet with him if you are elected President?

McCain: I am willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for human rights democracy and freedom and I will stand up to those that do not.

[Huffington Post, 9/18/08. Interview with Condoleezza Rice, 6/01/07. Radio Caracol Miami, 9/17/08]

The weakened state of U.S. global relationships must be addressed, but John McCain has a poor history of working with our allies. Only 30 percent of Germans now have a positive view of the United States, down from 78 percent before President Bush took office in January 2001. In Turkey, a Muslim democracy and NATO ally, only 9 percent now have a favorable view, down from 52 percent in late 2001. Most alarming is that just 51 percent of Britons - our partner in Iraq and our most reliable ally - now hold favorable views of the United States, down from 75 percent before the invasion of Iraq. Though Senator McCain has called for re-invigorating U.S. standing in the world, his history shows him to be reckless and abrasive, even with regard to our most historic partnerships. “Speaking at an international security conference in Germany a month before the war, a frustrated McCain lashed out at our European allies, calling them ‘vacuous and posturing.’ Later that year, in an interview, he referred to the French and Germans as ‘our adversaries.’” [NSN, 3/26/08. IHT, 6/27/07. Pew Global Attitudes Project, 6/27/07. NY Times, 2/07/08. The New Republic, 5/07/08]

The many challenges facing the U.S. require that it work more effectively with allies, but McCain’s foreign policy leaves little room for cooperation. On several critical foreign policy issues, John McCain has taken a confrontational, unilateral position, most recently with Russia, where he responded to the recent crisis between Russia and Georgia by warning of a “dramatically different relationship.” But an effective approach toward Russia requires developing a common strategy with our European allies. McCain’s calls for NATO membership with Georgia and his statement that “we are all Georgians” created fears in Europe of new Cold War. Additionally, several former Secretaries of State, said such a confrontational approach toward Russia would dramatically limit U.S. capacity to confront its most pressing dilemmas. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recently told a panel that “the United States needs ‘Russia for resolution of the Iranian problem. We may need Russia if Pakistan evolves in some of the directions that it might.’” [US News and World Report, 8/14/08. Jamie Rubin, Huffington Post Op-ed, 9/18/08. CNN, 9/16/08]