Ask-Steve.com

No wonder the GOP is falling apart

Referring to South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint:

The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own "brand," which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.

First of all, those brand values are mutually exclusive. Unless the limited government is granting people the freedom to live within the government-enforced, religious-based values.

I'm sure the tens of thousands of recently married couples in California would love for the government to take a more limited role in their personal lives, rather than foisting their religious-based values on them to take away their freedom.

If the GOP wants to return to true conservatism, they should jettison the religious radicals who have hijacked the party and get back to limited government and fiscal conservatism. Their hypocritical holy wars are only going to run the party out of office and into the ground.

GOP senator: McCain betrayed Republican principles  |  CNN Politics

Palin's reverse snobbery and the myth of small-town superiority

Small town life isn't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, much of the common wisdom around the wholesome nature of life in rural America is just plain wrong.

“Americans disdain snobbery in all its forms except the most popular one: reverse snobbery,” said Steve Chapman [in the Chicago Tribune]. That’s why Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin repeatedly gets away with implying that small-town and rural Americans are more honest, more hard-working, and generally better than those lazy, lying scoundrels who live in big, bad cities.

My single favorite publication, The Week magazine, has an excerpt from Steve Chapman's article in the Chicago Tribune entitled Palin's small-town snobbery is faulty.

After citing some of Palin's statements indicating that country folk in America are holier than their urban counterparts, Chapman goes on to debunk much of Palin's insulting rhetoric.

Most Americans, it seems, can tolerate hearing of the superiority of the small town, as long as they don't have to live in one. You wouldn't know it from listening to country music stations, or to the governor of Alaska, but four out of every five Americans choose not to reside in rural areas.

Maybe if they ventured beyond the city limits more often, those people would not be so inclined to believe everything they hear about the merits of rustic hamlets, which harbor a full complement of social ills.

Not everyone in rural America gets high on fresh air and the smell of new-mown hay. Illicit drugs are nearly as common out there as they are in cities and suburbs.

Chapman doesn't mention recent findings that urban living tends to be far better for the environment than living in the country, but he does cite some interesting facts:

• country kids were 26 percent more likely to experiment with drugs than middle-schoolers elsewhere
• overall methamphetamine consumption among adults and teens is more than 50 percent higher in the country
• relative to their urban counterparts, rural youth ages 12 to 17 are significantly more likely to report consuming alcohol
• excessive boozing among adults appears to be no less widespread in Mayberry than in Metropolis
• the highest rates of births to unwed mothers are in Mississippi and New Mexico, both of which have high rural populations
• the most urban states, New Jersey and California, do better than the average in out-of-wedlock births

Chapman concludes:

One of these days, the 80 percent of Americans who live in more populated areas may tire of being obliquely insulted. Most urbanites and suburbanites don't think they're any better than their country cousins. But Palin might want to think twice before telling them they're worse.

Of course, we don't need statistics to tell us this at all. Sarah Palin loves to say that (despite being sandwiched between two foreign countries, giving her great international affairs experience) Alaska is a microcosm of the United States. Well, I think hers is a microcosm of the small-town family. And it doesn't take a very close inspection to quickly discover that it's far from perfect.

The myth of small-town superiority | The Week

Palin's small-town snobbery is faulty | Chicago Tribune

Conservative media can't stand by McCain

Saying the McCain campaign is on the ropes may be too generous an assessment at this point. Even the conservative media outlets are finding it difficult to ignore the fact that Senator McCain's briefly resuscitated run for the White House is simply indefensible. The poorly run campaign has gone from not-so-bad to far worse than most—including me—could have predicted.

From the Wall Street Journal—a publication that is traditionally both fiscally and socially conservative:

Some McCain campaign officials are becoming concerned about the hostility that attacks against Sen. Obama are whipping up among Republican supporters. During an internal conference call Thursday, campaign officials discussed how the tenor of the crowds has turned on the media and on Sen. Obama.

Someone yelled "Off with his head" at a rally Wednesday for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin in Pennsylvania. Later that day in Ohio, a man stood outside a rally holding a sign that said "Obama, Osama." At a rally in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, someone in the crowd wore a T-shirt depicting Sen. Obama wearing a devil mask.

The Economist, fiscally conservative but more moderate socially, has shown good judgment from early on, more willing than it's U.S. counterparts to state the facts without fear of bullying verbal abuse by the GOP. In a September 4 article entitled The woman from nowhere: What Sarah Palin means:

Mr McCain has based his campaign on the idea that this is a dangerous world—and that Barack Obama is too inexperienced to deal with it. He has also acknowledged that his advanced age—he celebrated his 72nd birthday on August 29th—makes his choice of vice-president unusually important. Now he has chosen as his running mate, on the basis of the most cursory vetting, a first-term governor of Alaska.

Mr McCain had met Mrs Palin only once, for a 15-minute chat at the National Governors’ Association meeting, before summoning her to his ranch for her final interview. The New York Times claims that his team arrived in Alaska only on August 28th, a day before the announcement. As a result, his advisers seem to have been gobsmacked by the Palin show that is now playing on the national stage. She has links to the wacky Alaska Independence Party, which wants to secede from the Union. She is on record disagreeing with Mr McCain on global warming, among other issues. The contrast with Mr Obama’s choice of the highly experienced and much-vetted Joe Biden is striking.

These two articles say more than enough in making it clear that (I'll say it if no one else will in such plain terms) John McCain has just plain screwed up. But there is another out today from the normally mild-mannered Economist that sounds to me like the death knell for the McCain / Palin sideshow.

More evidence is surfacing that whole McCain-Palin crowds are increasingly comfortable calling Barack Obama a "terrorist" (not just a friend to a terrorist), "commie faggot" and similar. Look how many people repeat the theme, in these two videos (from Ohio and Pennsylvania).

The story links to two videos of McCain / Palin supporters that should be both embarrassing and alarming for any American. The story then concludes:

Add these two scenes, in your minds, to the racial slur and "kill him!" seen in Ft Meyers, Florida. Add this scene, in New Mexico, where John McCain asks who "the real Barack Obama" is and someone screams "terrorist!" One after the other after the other. Around the country. Boldly, stepping out to vent at a political rally in front of cameras, not being sought out in their communities.

Mr McCain and Mrs Palin are not playing with fire. They are handing out fire to drunken, angry crowds. If someone's house gets burned down they will point to the fire-safety pamphlet that was free for the taking at the entry to their rallies. (Mrs Palin: Sure, Mr Obama is not a terrorist but "This election is about the truthfulness and judgment needed in our next president.")  Would you accept that as a defence?

McCain Campaign Is at Odds Over Negative Attacks' Scope  | WSJ

The woman from nowhere | The Economist

McCain and Palin are not saying | The Economist

Ralph Stanley's radio ad supporting Obama in West Virginia

I'd like to say a very heartfelt thank you to Dave Allen for his post over at Pampelmoose. It may be the single most heartening thing I've read in a week at least.

Ralph Stanley is the last remaining survivor of the Stanley Brothers, and as such is one of the few remaining figures of the first generation of bluegrass musicians. He’s from the part of the mountains the Carter Family came from, and has had a recent career revival for his part in the Oh Brother Where Art Thou movie.

Listening to Ralph Stanley's iconic voice speaking in support of Barack Obama gives me tremendous encouragement and hope. I hope it does the same for you.

Ralph Stanley, a Radio Ad Supporting Obama in West Virginia - pampelmoose

Economist: World chooses Obama by a landslide

The Economist magazine has put together a brilliant application called the Global Electoral College. It asks, "What if the whole world could vote?"

People from around the world are casting there votes. The results as of this writing:

Obama: 13,491
McCain: 3,045

Global electoral votes for Obama: 8,039
Global electoral votes for McCain: 12

Let the right-wing ideologues spin this how they will. Their man is losing and losing big.

Click the image for a full-size version.

Global Electoral College: What if the whole world could vote? - Economist.com

Who's the elitest of them all?

Lost your house? Can't afford a car anymore? Maybe the McCains will give you one of theirs. I'm sure they'd never miss it. Heck, they probably couldn't tell you how many they own anyway.

I can't blame Joe Fannypack if he doesn't hold this against John McCain and his keep-the-poor-down policies. America seems to be full of near or below poverty level rich man's advocates. Is it out of a misguided belief that McCain is just an average guy who happened to strike gold with the American Dream? Just like Monster Truck Chuck next door is going to when he finally gets the winning lottery ticket or hits it big at the casino? Or is it that he feels that by siding with the bully, he'll somehow be part of the club and be accepted by all the bullies who picked on him on the playground in grade school?

I have no idea what causes these people to vote in direct conflict with their own interests, but it's pathetic and it's reprehensible. Grow a spine, middle America. The GOP has been date raping this country and half the rest of the planet long enough. Stop making excuses for them and let's elect a real president and administration rather than perpetuate this corrupt and disastrous regime.

Obama continues to take the high road, Clinton the low

Hillary Clinton is on a roll. But not the kind of roll she'd like to be on.

Her latest jaw-dropping gaffe:

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it."

There were cries of disbelief and outrage, and rightly so, from all over. How did her opponent react?

"I have learned that when you are campaigning for as many months as Senator Clinton and I have been campaigning, sometimes you get careless in terms of the statements that you make and I think that is what happened here. Senator Clinton says that she did not intend any offense by it and I will take her at her word on that," Obama told Radio Isla Puerto Rico.

It's very generous of Senator Obama to be so kind in responding to what many see as a thinly veiled reference to the possibility of his own assassination, but even if he's right I find this very troubling. I want someone who is not only ready to lead "on day one," as Clinton intones like a broken record, but someone who is still ready to lead on day 731. Not someone who is going 'get careless' in what she says and does as the President of the United States.

I can't help but wonder whether Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and their supporters will see the light before they do irreparable harm to their careers, their reputations and the Democratic Party. And, by extension, the nation.

Analysis: Clinton's latest off-key remark

Richardson endorses Obama at rally in Portland

Obama Rally - March 21, 2008 - Portland, Oregon

I'm glad I got to witness firsthand what I hope will be a decisive moment in Barack Obama's final push to the White House.

Click the photo for a larger, full view.

Five Ways the Richardson Endorsement Boosts Obama - The Washington Post

At the Obama Rally: This guy was pissed

I can't blame him a bit. He was letting the crowd know all about it.

And hey, who wants to argue with a guy with not one, but two golf clubs?

Click the photo for a larger image. It's worth it. And be sure to read the fine print.

[Obama Rally - March 21, 2008 - Portland, Oregon]

NRCC Says Ex-Treasurer Diverted Up to $1 Million

The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and possibly as much as $1 million -- of the organization's funds into his personal accounts, GOP officials said.

NRCC Says Ex-Treasurer Diverted Up to $1 Million  |  Washington Post