Liveblogging the Obama Infomercial

This is such a spectacle, I don't think I can miss it. Updates on it will be in the comments.

To the shock of what should be no one, CNN wouldn't air Obama's 1/2 hour infomercial, but felt fine in giving McCain free media with Larry King for the 9pm hour. There's nooo hypocrisy there.

Liberals are a Danger to the Economy?

Really? What does Senator McCain call the past 8 years?

More Nuclear Now!

Because Nuclear Energy is so safe, as Senator McSame says.

Eek.

The allure of nuclear technology disappears once people have a better understanding of it.

• Over the lifetime of a plant, which far exceeds its lifetime as a functioning, energy-producing plant, the costs of that plant will by far outweigh the energy it produces. (Even when accounting for recycling technologies, which I do support for existing nuclear plants.)
• The short term costs of making a nuclear power plant are great, the long term costs - as already suggested - are staggering. Investing in more nuclear power as a means to become energy independent makes about as much sense as investing in Lehman brothers right now.
  
• We still don't have an effective means to dispose of the waste, which is a problem that will last, oh, say, forever.
  
• If anything does happen to these plants, the word "catastrophic" seems minimal and simplistic. And, honestly, when it comes to human beings, accidents are always going to happen. See France and all of their "safe" plants.
• There's plenty of better ways to invest our money than investing it in what is now old technology at this point. Focusing on wind, solar, conservation and new battery technologies seems like a much better effort to this layman's mind.
• Did anyone ever mention that nuclear power is a limited resource? No? More nuclear plants will mean we'll use all our Earthly nuclear supply rapidly, running out of it perhaps quicker than fossil fuels.
  
• I wish I could find a link to an awesome documentary I watched on Nuclear Power about a year or so ago. It didn't take sides, trying to present a full picture so people could make up their own minds. I came into it with an open mind, left dead-set against nuclear plants. Given their long term costs, never mind potential for disaster, they're just not a logical path toward energy independence or a solution to Global Warming.
• I was inspired to write this blog in response to this one.
  

Heroes for McCain

Watch Hayden Panettiere give a PSA for McCain:

See more Hayden Panettiere videos at Funny or Die

No Thanks, Senator

(A BMG Challenge)

Master the McSame:
A Debater of renown,
except not right now.

He says he knows that
the economy teeters
the brink - in peril.

For twenty six years,
willfully locked in D.C.,
but he'll fix it now.

No thanks, Senator
your market expertise got
us there to start with.

Don't Trust the Republicans

Seriously, what over the past 8 years has the Republican Party done to inspire trust? Ruin the economy? Get this country into a foolish war that it was destined to lose? Double (yes, double) the national debt? Am I going crazy here?

Now, we're supposed to trust these very same people to fix the economy with a massive bad debt bailout? No thanks, the Republicans created the deregulations that have led to where we are today, they now own them. If some of their precious corporate friends lose everything - too damn bad. That's what millions of Americans have been losing under all of these policies for almost a decade now.

The fact is that this bailout that seems destined to happen won't even address the underlying problem: people losing their homes. If we're going to bail out anyone, why not the American people? These people were told by these banks that they could afford these loans when they couldn't, or that they could get out of their subprimes if they needed to - when they couldn't. This bailout won't stop people from losing their homes, it's just that now these banks won't be responsible for taking on risky debt. This is absurd!

This is an absolute betrayal of actual conservative economic policy - some of which now even most Democrats subscribe to. Pay as you go. Don't take overly risky debt. Be accountable for your actions. These are all policies that the bulk of the Democratic Party now subscribes to, yet the Republicans are more than willing to abandon.

So, let's get this all straight: The free-market Republicans bought the country's two largest mortgage firms, Freddie and Fanny, meaning we now own more than 50% of this country's mortgages. Then we buy 80% of one of the largest insurance companies in the world, the 18th largest company in existence - according to Bob at BMG. Now, we're going to take on the entire banking industry's bad debt? Isn't capitalism supposed to be about companies taking personal accountability for their actions? Since when should government take all the risk - and the corporations all the profit?

The truth is, I'm not opposed to a little government intervention to help the economy. But this bailout plan is absurd. If we're going to bail out anyone, bail out the people. If we bail them out - we save the companies anyway. Along with the economy. If we don't bail out the people, but bail out the companies... maybe the stocks will be saved, but millions more will lose their homes - devastating this country's real economy (the people who must live with it). Things will get worse, not better, as companies are told it's okay to take on bad debt - the government will be accountable for you. Politicies this government creates should make sense for the people who live in this country, not just the corporations. Otherwise, we're not just a welfare state, we're a corporate welfare state - and that should offend all American taxpayers, many of whom get screwed in the process.

My Thoughts on Tonight's Debate

I suppose this is a live blog.

I missed a good chunk of McCain's speech, but let me just say this: I feel bad for the guy. I truly don't think he's quite as horrible as his campaign is, even if he has a problem with his 'tude (as Republicans have said in the past). If only he ran with high standards, maybe I wouldn't love to use his blogger nicknames. However, he makes the bed he sleeps in. His campaign fired the Rovian shots - and it's his campaign - so he has to live with being the candidate of negativity and divisive politics.

The format of the forum is one I really like. I've said so in the past. That said, most of the questions tonight have been softballs - it's hard to be against "service."

Here's one thing everyone should consider: Obama's right when he says he had a choice when he decided to become a community organizer; he could have chosen to be wealthy and get ahead faster, he decided to serve his country and communities in it that were most in need. That's one of the reasons that I became excited about him - that he made that choice, far before he could have possibly had any political aspirations. He made the tough, good and important choice. Not many people do.

I'll post more thoughts in the comments, as the forum rolls on.

I Found McCain's Palin Interview!

Update: For actual, real news...

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

In Wasilla, smaller taxes are more important than rape victims. Compassionate conservatism in action.

Barack's Campaign

I just got an email from Barack's campaign containing a response to yesterday's Republican Convention, featuring none other than Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani on the prowl.

I saw John McCain's attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a part of this campaign.

But worst of all -- and this deserves to be noted -- they insulted the very idea that ordinary people have a role to play in our political process....

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let's clarify something for them right now.

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

Damn straight. And powerful.

I've been getting this a lot lately about my dismissal of Palin and McCain's ability to lead this country: I just don't understand the perspective of people to my right. Maybe.

But the opposite is certainly true: Belittle the citizens who care first about our communities at a peril.

Few would go from finishing in the top 3% of Harvard's Law School, Editor of its Law Review, to becoming a community organizer, making a paltry salary. Only the most patriotic - the people most committed to our country and its people - would choose to do that. Obama passed out on millions of dollars, instead choosing years of struggling both as a family and to make a difference in the community. He was a resounding success, succeeding despite the fact that he took the road less travelled - serving our country's communities, instead of abandoning them.

It's widely held that all politics is local, at least the kind that stirs a voter's passions. People are moved by what's happening in their community and the things that directly effect their lives. If that's true - and Palin/McSame want to attack Obama's community organizing bonafides - they better watch out. It will come back to bite them.

Update: For those who don't get what a community organizer does, a pastor is a kind of community organizer.

In other news: Read my post on Joe Klein, the media and the McCain campaign over at BlueMassGroup.

________________________
Help keep this blog going.

Palin: Over/Under 7 Days

Here's the latest revelation by McCain's campaign: Palin's daughter is pregnant. It pretty much means this is baby number one, but it begs the question: how long will Palin last as VP? She supports abstinence-only education, yet her very own daughter has a baby at 17 out of wedlock. She thinks a fetus has more rights than a woman who was raped, yet would avoid hospitals for more than a dozen hours while in labor - all to give a keynote speech in Texas, then fly to Alaska, then skip Anchorage hospitals for driving 45 more minutes to get to a backwater clinic. That's truly a Britney Spears-like moment (since the McCain campaign likes making Britney comparisons).

I don't like peddling in mud - this is really a first for this blog - but there's too much at stake and, unlike the Swiftboaters, this stuff is actually true. Something fishy was going on and now it's out in the open. Not that this is anything new, but there's Republicans being hypocritical.

Here's the question, though: It's Republican Convention Week. Now's the time for them to throw her under the bus. Will she last the week? The over/under is 7 days. I'm saying under.

Update: 2 more thoughts. VP nominee Romney is almost inevitable at this point & this is Harriet Miers all over again. Thanks, McCain.

McCain Picks Karen from Will and Grace!

Or at least someone who could be a professional body double.

The good news about McCain's pick, for Democrats, is the fact that Jane Swift is more qualified to be Vice President than the Governor of Alaska. Just consider their resumes: both were governors for two years, but McCain's pick, Sarah Palin, was part-time mayor of a town of less than 7,000 people two years ago. Before that, she was a city councilor. At least Jane Swift had a legislative background to fall back on, as well as years of service as Lt. Governor.

So, yea, there goes McCain's 'experience matters' argument. It was the one thing he really had going for him. Too bad!

BTW - did I mention Palin's being investigated by Alaska's legislature for abusing her power as Governor and firing someone who pissed off her sister? It's McCain's gift that keeps on giving.

Best Political Event Ever

Well, at least of this political season.

Hello Ryan,

In what we all hope to make one of the most forlorn of his campaign offices, John McCain is opening an office right here in the Bay State tomorrow evening.

So we're having a Push Back On Mac event at his new office to welcome them to Massachusetts.

Let's show his campaign what we really think by showing up at his new office, registering voters, and showing our support for Barack Obama, John Kerry, and all the other great Democrats up and down the ticket.

We're meeting at Park Street Station in Boston at 5 o'clock. Bring your homemade Obama signs, and be ready to grab a clipboard and help register voters.

Follow this link to RSVP for the event and let us know you're coming:


http://www.johnkerry.com/page/event/detail/volunteerjohnkerrycampaignevent/rtd

The McCain camp has been airing ads here in Massachusetts, and we should show them that this is blue country. We're tired of the GOP politics of smears, and we reject the policies of the Bush/McCain foreign policy and the disastrous economic policies.

If you've never done it, there's nothing quite like a fun activist event showing the spirit of the Democratic Party.

Hope to see you there!

Brian Young
John Kerry for Senate

Seriously, this cracks me up so much that I may even just go - and bring my camera.

McCain's Hackery, Bigotry &Stupidity

There's a reason why this is perhaps the first Presidential Election where the chief strategy has been to keep John McCain as far away from anyone - press or people - as possible. However, this has got to take the cake! It's not as if we didn't know McCain was anti-gay, but his most recent statement is about as ugly a statement as anyone could imagine.

"I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption."

Well, gee, John, when are you going to introduce legislation to remove the tens of millions of children in America who live with single parents? Apparently, just because a mother and a father worked in his family, that's the only model that can work. Oh, and clearly all mother-father families have worked wonders for their children; a mother and a father have never screwed up their kids' lives, at any point in time, in the history of mankind. It's only gay parents and single parents.

So, John, what about the million-plus people in this country who have been raised by at least one gay parent? I suppose none of those parents were worthy of their children...

To top it all off, was McCain's family model a success before or after the infidelity?

And Michelangelo Signorile discusses McCain's sham marriages, responding to an L.A. Times article over the weekend which reported on the fact that McCain had obtained a marriage license for Cindy while still married to his first wife: "Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife."

What an ass! Also, how stupid does he have to be to open himself to this line of attack? If the "family value" crowd wants to vote on the candidate who truly has a family reflective of good family values, the obvious choice is Obama. He's never been divorced, while he and his wife are in the midst of raising two absolutely adorable, well-adjusted kids.

Ask Ryan Anything: Back by Popular Demand

(Bumped... people kept asking for Ask Ryan Anything... so they best be asking questions in the comments!)

A whole assortment of people have asked me in comments over the past few months "where's Ask Ryan Anything?" It's been gone for nearly a year - and people still remember it. So, have at it!

The rules: you can ask me anything in the comments and I'll give an answer. It can be related to politics, or not. Anything's fair game, though if it's incredibly snarky, my answer may be in kind.

Here's a little comment to kick this all off: All I can say about Obama is "I told you so." Hillary may not have been a great President, but she would have been a decent one. At the very least, she probably wouldn't have pissed on the constitution and denounced Wes Clark for doing a wonderfully fantastic deed in our efforts to crush McCain. Obama's actions in it all? Talk about grasping the jaws of defeat from victory. Also, he's now officially a wimp.

I'm a McCainiac!

Clearly, we must be missing the revolution.



Watch the whole thing... it gets funnier every step of the way.

Hillary/Obama Stand Off

It's pretty clear, to me, that tonight's Hillary speech was all about Hillary wanting to be VP and Obama saying "no." Why he's saying no, I don't get, because she's clearly as strong a candidate out there as any (and, according to MSNBC's count, really is leading in the popular vote as of earlier in the evening). Instead of increasing his likelihood of winning, he's doing everything in his power to keep this bitter to the end. A bitter end.

For months, the smart thing to do was to unite the ticket. This is absurd. I have no horses in this race; at this point, I can't stand any of them. I wish we could have a whole primary do-over, complete with new candidates, because these ones suck. They can't even be the 'bigger person' and unite the fracking ticket. Talk about a pair of egotistical, stubborn clowns. Thank goodness it's McSame we're running against - that guy can't talk his way out of a paper bag - otherwise, I'd be worried right now.

Taking the Ultimate Sacrifice

It's good to see Republicans are willing to sacrifice on the big stuff, like going from insanely and moronically homophobic, to taking it down just a notch so it won't hurt McCain's campaign (too late).

Tee Hee... McCain's done!

He wasn't born in America. So, unless we have the quickest organized Constitutional Amendment ever, poor, 'ol McCain seems cooked to me.

"No person except a natural born Citizen... shall be eligible to the Office of President." Oopsie! I actually remember this tidbit coming up in my Con Law class back in the day, when I was pretty outraged that someone born in an American base overseas wouldn't be eligible to become President. I even think it's ridiculous that someone who's lived here for 15-20 years couldn't run either - but such is this country's highest law.

Scary Polling Data

There was some real scary polling data on MSNBC's Countdown last night. Keith Olbermann talked about a poll MSNBC commissioned, featuring the two top democrats versus McCain. Nationally, Obama vs. McCain was a 42-42 tie, while Hillary actually lost to McCain by about 2% (I think it was 44-46). As mentioned Wednesday, the two don't even fair well against McCain in Massachusetts! Hillary, in the Bay State SUSA poll, beat McCain by about 4% - Obama actually lost to McCain by a whopping 5% (a 9% swing in this state, compared to Hillary's number).

Now, polls are only a snapshot in time and there'd be plenty of moons for the two to shore up the Commonwealth, but if either candidate actually had to defend a state like Massachusetts from a Republican, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the country.

In fact, there's only two reasonable deductions to make from the MSNBC poll: we all need to hope John Edwards can actually make a race of this, as he's the only one who consistently defeats McCain in national polls. Secondly, let's all pray the Christian Right does the stupid right thing and helps the Grand Old Party nominate Willabee (either Willard or Huckabee, better yet - a ticket!). It'll be the Republican version of nominating McGovern - and they're actually stupid enough to be doing their best to make it happen (Romney's starting to take the lead in Florida). Otherwise, the prospects of McCain versus either Hillary or Obama is an utter nightmare few should dare to dream.

Eek!

This doesn't bode well for Obama: in Massachusetts, Barack Obama would lose to John McCain. MASSACHUSETTS! As I've said over at BMG a few times, and perhaps here, Clinton outperforms Obama among Democrats, while Obama has relied on Independents to overcome the fact that he loses the Democratic vote to his rivals. Clearly, I'm not alone in thinking Obama isn't exactly a proud Democrat - he turns off a lot of voters, even more so than Hillary.

In what shouldn't exactly be the shocker of shockers, given the previous two sentences, Barack Obama doesn't fare well against John McCain, who also appeals to Independents. In the poll, Hillary beat McCain by a 4% margin. Obama would lose by 5% - that's a 9% swing, folks. Glaringly missing in the survey is the fact that John Edwards isn't included. However, in matchups from other surveys, John Edwards consistently performs best among Democrats versus John McCain.

For years on this blog, I've been telling people to not vote based on their gut feelings of who they think is most electable. Barack Obama may appeal toward broader coalitions in Democratic Primaries, but those people clearly don't necessarily follow him over to the general election. They also don't vote as much. We can't take chances in '08, so people ought to be very careful about voting for Obama. He's not the best candidate out there by any measure.

Hat tip to Susan at Below Boston, who's the best Mass Blogger on the POTUS scene.

Update: Here's one of the reasons why I say Susan's election coverage has been the best. Read her comment on that blog, too.