Rev.Wrong

Since this is a political year in which guilt by association is fair game; And since Barack’s former pastor has been the constant grist of the last two months of the media cycle, can we please give equal time to the colorful cadre of religious charlatans that John McCain elects to share the stage with? For instance, Rev Rod Parsley of Columbus’ World Harvest megachurch. He has some very interesting thoughts on American history and our national duty to slay the infidels. All this guy needs is a limp and cave.

Flip Flopper

Nobody likes those. Just ask John Kerry.

Look who’s voting for Obama

Just as soon as the Clinton Campaign and the GOP squeeze all the mileage out of the Rev Wright and the “Bitter” controversies, get ready for this one. Barack Obama consorts with known terrorists!!!! Pictured above is Bill Ayres, a former Weatherman. No, not the guy with the funny maps before the Sportscast– the 1960’s Yippie variety. He plotted the overthrow of our government, protested the Military Industrial Complex and conspired to put LSD in the Jello mold. All about the time Barack Obama was in Pampers. Anyway, today’s he’s a Obama supporter. And fair game. So get ready.

Gaffe?

Barack Obama has an international upbringing, a biracial heritage and an ivy league education. He is wicked smart and a powerful speaker. So when he says something you can be assured of two things: He is not misspeaking and he is trying to bring people together. So any attempt by the Obama camp to wiggle out of his comments concerning “bitter” blue-collars workers, we should question. This guy doesn’t misspeak. He says what he means and means what he says. But the other thing we should seriously question is his opponents attempts to cast Obama as out of touch with working-class people. The one thing Obama has in spades is empathy. So when he speaks to a group of San Francisco liberals he articulately and candidly tries to explain why conservative Catholic factory-workers may not embrace the benign programs of the liberal establishment. He challenges his listeners to transcend their cultural and political biases to understand the other end of the spectrum. He challenges middle-class white people to understand the plight of poor blacks. He challenges faith-adverse Democrats to embrace faith-based evangelicals. He challenges us all. Because without being challenged, we remain cosy and comfortable in our individual enclaves. And the other guy, is always the enemy. Sadly, frank, articulate challenges from a frank, articulate leader like Obama are always going to make dodgy-sounding sound bites for FOX News and the GOP. But when truth is spoken it is never a gaffe. It is, at worse, an inconvenient truth.

McCain: Unplugged

The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop:

“Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain’s intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain’s hair and said, ‘You’re getting a little thin up there.’ McCain’s face reddened, and he responded, ‘At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.’ McCain’s excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.”

And Cindy will be First Trollop. It makes a second Clinton White House sound like Ozzie and Harriet.

McCain closes the gap

In a recent poll, John McCain has closed the 10-point gap between himself and Barack Obama. Now, if he can only close the gap with himself.

This just in…

Actor and NRA activist Charlton Heston has died. Would somebody please help me pry this gun out of his cold, dead hands?

Obanomics

Obama is like that professor we had in college. The good one. The one that made things interesting. The one who made things make sense. The one who could put the snapshot of now into the big picture of then. That’s what Obama has done in his recent speeches. He put racism in its greater context. He gave us the big picture. He did it again today at Cooper Union where he spoke on the economy. He didn’t just talk about what isn’t working or how it’s all the GOP’s fault. He gave us the big picture. He made everything make sense. He made economics interesting. This is more than a gift for inspiring oratory, this is the gift of a brilliant mind. Imagine, a guy like that in the Oval Office! It’s been a while.

A natural born president

One of these candidates may not be constitutionally qualified to be President. It’s not the one with the foreign-sounding name and the international up-bringing. It’s the guy from Arizona who was actually born just south of Tucson in a place called the Panama Canal Zone. So, technically, he’s not a natural born citizen. Which is a bit of a rub, particularly for a guy who is a strict constructionist. Now you would think they would have passed a law that would get around this unfortunate accident of birth. And you would be right. The law declared anyone who is born of American citizens should be considered “natural born.” The only problem is that law is no longer on the books. All of which may argue that Hillary Clinton is truly the best qualified candidate to be President. US-born. And a name that doesn’t sound like an al-Qaeda suicide bomber.

Another New York Times endorsement

The New York Times: All the news that’s fit to print. You know, like a tawdry sex scandal. So the New York Times has caught the senator from Arizona with his knickers down. Are we sure we aren’t talking about the NEW YORK POST? Well, this thorough bit of reportage says that Washington lobbyist Vicki Iseman had had an affair with McCain, a man many years her senior and, oh yeah, kinda married. And that became the news cycle. So I guess Mike Huckabee just got his miracle. And Rush Limbaugh at last has proof that McCain is a conservative.