That last paragraph sounds so good and it's such a stinking lie.

Obama never has said we don't have enemies. Never.

This is probably a pointless question, and, it's probably the culmination of an afternoon reading student research reports (transl: my brain is toast!, but how is questioning the strength, judgment and wisdom of one's opponent "civil"?

I thought St. John Straight Talkin' Maverick McCain was going to run a "civil" campaign.

Where's Cindy when we need her? She said the same thing.

As for the actual content, keep bringing up how scared Americans should be. Keep doing it, you feeble old man. Allows Obama to draw such an advantageous contrast.

Sorry for "feeble old man". That was ad hominem.

Hey, he's right. We have to bomb, bomb, bomb until we get them to appease US. Hey, worked out so well in Vietnam.. no?

The correct response is: Americans are not afraid of anyone, least of all Iran. What is McCain so afraid of?

The "Republican = fearful of shadows" meme needs to get out there. Because really, that's what the last few years have been all about. The right wingers keep talking about all the terrible, terrible dangers, when any thinking person can see that America is as safe from external enemies as ever. (It's just the domestic problems that are the killer.)

Lux,
I hear you. If it does turn out to be the case, though, that McCain follows Hillary's line of attack on Obama, we have some comfort in knowing that it probably won't work this time around, either. And if today's exchanges are harbingers of what's to come, Obama won't pull punches.

..... you know it's juss a shame that Obama can't hit back on what such an abomination the whole Iraq escapade turned out to be, it would cause Americans as a whole to become somewhat introspective and as a nation we don't reflect on things EVER. How is that war for Middle Eastern resources coming along? Thank goodness that surge McCain trumpeted may allow us to declare victory in 2013. Ah you know what juss give me my $600 and lemme vote for the white guy with a non-Muslim sounding name. Thinking is HARD.

John McCain's problem, his flip flops are on video or have been direct quotes. He has a creditability problem and BO shined the light on one of them today, his flip flopped view on talking to Hamas.
BO has the potential of doing to JM what JM did to Mitt Romney, paint him as a flip flopper.

Good Johnny Boy, mock Obama's speaking ability because that worked so well for your buddy, Hillary.

Oh, I just can't wait to see these two on a stage together! Obama will blow him away.

McCain of The Panderosa

Has been forced to ditch yet another Senior Campaign Weasel.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10394.html

Excerpted from the report:

ohn McCain's campaign asked a prominent Republican consultant, Craig Shirley, to leave his official campaign role Thursday after a Politico inquiry about Shirley's dual role consulting for the campaign and for an independent 527 group opposing the Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign also released a new conflict-of-interest policy barring such arrangements.

Shirley, a conservative public relations veteran, doubled as a consultant to McCain and to Stop Her Now, a 527 group barred from coordinating its activities with presidential campaigns. He is not currently on the McCain campaign’s payroll but will also step down from his role on McCain’s Virginia Leadership Team said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

They are running over Obama.

Who da thunk it?

Me, of course.

Lose three in a row on national security.

Should have run Clinton.

McCain obviously knows one verse of one song.

And we are doomed to hear it until November.

Kind of like having the melody of Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun" stuck in your noggin'.

Wow.

Just wow.

-

Obama/Olbermann '08!

Come on, sweetie.

No one has done more for foreign policy than Barack Obama.

Is Israel more secure today than they were before George W. Bush was sworn in.

Is the United States more secure today than before George W. Bush was sworn in.

Is the American Economy stronger today than before George W. Bush was sworn in.

Do all Americans and Israelis feel more secure today than before George W. Bush was sworn in.

War Monger McCain wants to continue with the very same disastrous misbegotten policies of George W. Bush.

If that is what you are craving for, Then McCain Of The Panderosa is your War Mongering Panderer In Chief.

More War Years! More War Years! More War Years!

The gop brought out the big guns at the NRA and just ran slap over Obama.

McCain is crushing Obama on national security in the polls.

This was predicted by the Clinton supporters but ignored.

The dems will be fools to run this guy and lose three in a row on the same freaking issue, national security.

It will be interesting to see the path that the Republicans take trying to deal with Obama. If I remember correctly, this first salvo is sort of like the Clinton campaign's first salvo against Obama last summer [naive on foreign policy].

Maybe the Republican party is so lost in the wilderness of their own self-destruction that they can only try to piggy-back onto the Clinton campaign's strategies, trying some twists of facts and guilt by association stuff at later dates.

I think the Clinton campaign's fatal error was to not even recognize how widespread and deep is the desire for a substantive change in direction. The Clinton campaign followed an out-dated script.

The Republican party's fatal error may be to not recognize the fact that a majority of ordinary folks have emerged from the Bush years by becoming aware that they were, in fact, manipulated with fear tactics. McCain's campaign seems to also be following an out-dated script.

War and Commander-in-Chief-dom are REPUBLICAN frameworks. Shifting the focus to bullying and fear-mongering allows Republicans to force recessivist policies upon the population. What we are seeing here it the repetition of a fascist plutocracy surplanting a democratic republic.

Progressives need to focus on re-framing the conversation of what the Presidency is. The reason for the existence of the Office of President is defense of the Constitution. Quickness to resorting to violence is exactly the opposite of what is required to lead a nation founded on responsibly maximizing freedoms . . . Especially and specifically including the freedom from fear.

Everyone loses when America wallows in fear.

GotNOlife,

I am sorry that the ability to understand the concepts expressed above escapes you. I feel for, empathize, forthe lonely tragic life you mind seems to confine you to.

Patrick Henry meant what he said when he stated, "Give me Liberty or give me death."

Beating ones chest and pretending to be Alpha Prime Male does nothing to better or forward the Great American Experiment. We . . . We, the People, are better than that. Obama appears to have come to understand that.

Clinton ran and continues to run a wildly sucessful primary campaign in spite of making choices I would have never made. Acknowledge that Obama ran an even more sucessful primary campaign and is the democratic Party's de facto nominee. It is time to choose to support what is best for Amerca.

I say this as one who has made no secret that neither Clinton or Obama is my preferred choice. It is time to join the League of Civilized Human-kind.

Obama's big problem against McCain is that he's an empty suit. He brings nothing to the table. He can say stuff about national security, but the general election isn't a Democratic primary. Nobody cares about his "judgment" in 2002. If Bush engineers some little incident in late summer, Obama is toast.

I like the branding Obama's people are doing.

Bush... McCain
BushMcCain
Bushmccain

The failed, naive policies of Bushmccain.
Eight years of Bushmccain has put us in a hole.
Don't need no more Bushmccain.
Time to scrape the Bushmccain off our nation's shoe.

On a subliminal level it's a hard sell for McCain to project the image of himself as a powerful protector of the American people due to his physical frailties. His age is less of a problem for him than the loss of range of motion in his arms. His limited arm swing threatens his balance when he walks, especially on stairs without a handrails. When he speaks,his arm gestures are stilted. His rage may be a function of his feelings of physical impotence. Accounts of his verbal abuse of his wife and her past addition to painkillers create a troubling portrait.

Reckless meet feckless...

This is getting to be like an Ultimate Fighting match

"What's reckless is continuing the Bush-McCain foreign policy that has cost us thousands of lives and a trillion dollars in Iraq, strengthened Iran, enabled Hamas to take Gaza, took our eye off al Qaeda, failed to capture Osama bin Laden, failed to finish the job in Afghanistan, and left us less safe and less respected in the world. No amount of utterly predictable fear-mongering and tough talk can change the fact that John McCain is running to continue the most disastrous foreign policy in recent American history," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Note to any McCain staffer that promotes running on Hillary's anti-Obama approach:

Your candidate is not nearly as smart as Hillary Clinton.

-

Obama/Olbermann '08!

Those who are afraid are saying these things about us.
Those who are afraid are spreading fear.
Those who are afraid are saying that they are the only salvation.
And all they offered us for eight years is fear.
Those who are afraid believe that we will abandon our core beliefs for fear.
Those who are afraid will remind us of good times past; prior, to their control.
Those who are afraid will ask us not to stray from the past.
Those who are afraid will ask us not to think of new horizons.
Those who are afraid are afraid of their own beliefs.
Yes, your neighbor who is of a different color or belief, has yet to harm you...those who are afraid
What America; have we become. other than those that are afraid.
Our shadows can do no harm; Only our will.
Let us take it back and be Americans again.

We women are going to pull our vote and vote McCain...

and then we may LEAVE THE FREAKIN DEM PARTY

What many people don't realize is that Senator McCain isn't just shreaking from the far right. He's actually speaking for many, many Americans who would otherwise have voted Democratic but simply won't put the country in the hands of a novice like Barack Obama. Senator Obama is a celebrity, not a leader.

McCain, you should just STFU while you still have a future in Pepsi commercials. The more you flap your lips, the goofier you sound. You can't even remember what you said in the morning to keep from contradicting yourself in the afternoon. If you're going to keep taking your talking points from Bush, you might as well concede right now.

McShitstain parrots Bush at the Knesset to amplify attacks on Obama. Piggyback on top of Bush. Get used to the salvos McCain. Obama is gonna lob them any chance he gets especially when you slip up like yesterday, and in a debate he's gonna wipe the floor with you especially after his 20 debate warmup with Hillary who would have whooped your ass too. Be afraid. Very afraid.

well, it is unclear as of yet just how well Obama really does understand national security issues. Being against the war doesn't count for a lot, because the picture was so murky in 2002-03 that a reasonable case could have been made on either side. He guessed right, but it was only a guess. And his growing up in Malaysia, understanding other cultures, blahblahblah, is just non-sense. Sure, copared to provincial morons, he's Dr. Kissinger, but compared to me he's a provincial moron.

By CRAIG DELLA PENNA on May 16, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Dear Senator Obama:

I’m very upset by recent statements you have made about funding education by “postponing” elements of the space program. Let me tell you why this is a very ill-advised position.

1. It makes you look like an idiot.

If you do indeed postpone Orion by five years, you have effectively killed it. The project will lose its knowledgeable personnel, its production schedule will be canceled and there will then be no replacement for the 40 year old shuttle fleet. The Russians (and perhaps by then, the Chinese) will be the only nations with manned access to the ISS and to space.

2. It makes you look like an idiot.

The entire space program soaks up about 0.15 % of the federal budget, the DoD currently consumes about 31% of the federal budget (when you include the costs of our several wars). As president you could extract the entire NASA budget from the DoD budget and they wouldn’t even know it was gone, it’s a rounding error. In addition, the space program is the only government program in our nation’s history which can be shown to have paid for itself – in terms of fiscal and medical benefits derived from cutting edge technology which NASA either invented or sponsored.

3. It makes you look like an idiot.

Every self-serving, tub-thumping, ill-informed, moronic, blowhard political hack in the past fifty years has attacked NASA to herd the ‘proles’ to his side. By pandering to the Luddite, anti-intellectualism rampant in American society, they hope to send a message to the masses: “I’m one of you, I hate smart people too.” This is certainly not hopeful, nor audacious, it’s just old-time political quackery.

4. It makes you look like an idiot.

American education isn’t just about “readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmetic” so you can go out and make great gobs of money. There must be goals – great ones, dreams far larger than rolling up a nice, fat 401K. In order to meld us together as a nation, we need aspirations that demand greatness from us. Young people need to see that there is opportunity to actually accomplish their dreams and a purpose larger than earning a living.

Fools and madmen use our fear to conjure threats, precipitate useless wars and make cowards of us all. Do not be this kind of politician, we have more than enough already.

Leaders address the best that is in us, qualities we didn’t know we had and demand that we rise to meet those expectations because we can rise and we can create something new, beautiful and bold.

The space program represents those qualities of aspiration, expectation and accomplishment that we must embrace as a nation if we are to prosper and live long.

The choice you currently espouse leads, inevitably, downward, stifling creativity and handing the future to others. It is also intellectually lazy and can easily be shown to be massively counterproductive both economically and scientifically - and, it makes you look like an idiot.

You still have the chance to reverse yourself and reject the foolish counsel that proposes to cut off our future in order to make political points with fools.

It’s your choice as to what company you will keep – what will you do?

Cordially,

Obama Gains Six S.C. Delegates

http://www.redorbit.com/news/politics/1389169/obama_gains_six_sc_delegates/

By John O'Connor, The State, Columbia, S.C.

May 16--The majority of S.C. delegates earned by former presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday they would vote for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic convention.

Of the state's eight Edwards delegates, six announced they would support Obama. Two remain uncommitted.

Edwards, an S.C. native and former U.S. senator from North Carolina, endorsed Obama in Michigan on Wednesday night. He asked his delegates -- 19 earned in three states -- to vote for Obama.

Edwards earned more delegates -- eight -- in finishing third in South Carolina than in any other state. In 2004, Edwards won the South Carolina primary, and his support in the Palmetto State continues to run deep.

Under party rules, delegates are free to vote for whomever they choose.

"I was elected to represent John Edwards," said Robert Groce, 40, a delegate from Summerville. "I will honor his request and vote for Obama."

Groce said he has not followed the candidates as closely since Edwards dropped out Jan. 30 but said he could support either Obama or U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton from New York.

"I am very comfortable that either one could assume the office and do a good job. The party has really benefited from having so many good candidates."

John Moylan, a Columbia attorney and Edwards' top S.C. adviser, believed there would be strong support for Obama among Edwards' delegates. Moylan released a list of those supporting Obama, including: Lauren Bilton of Columbia; Daniel Boan of Kershaw; Christine Brennan-Bond of Moore; Michael Evatt of Seneca; and Susan Smith of Pawleys Island.

In addition, Moylan, an alternate delegate, and state Rep. Bill Clyburn, a member of the platform committee, said they, too, would support Obama.

Barnwell resident Tim Moore said he would avoid the "feeding frenzy" and take some time to make a decision.

"I haven't really had time to think about it," Moore said. "I'm inclined to wait a little bit and see how things shake out."

An eighth delegate, Marilyn Hemingway of Georgetown, also remained undecided.

"I am giving serious consideration of his decision to endorse Senator Barack Obama for President, and his endorsement will influence my choice for president," Hemingway said in a written statement. "However, I am not prepared at this time to state the candidate that will receive my vote as a national delegate."

The Associated Press reported at least one of Edwards' New Hampshire delegates endorsed Obama.

As Obama tries to secure the Democratic nomination, S.C. Democratic Party executive director Joe Werner said every delegate matters.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Seven South Carolina delegates once committed to former presidential candidate John Edwards are now endorsing Barack Obama.

http://www.wbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8336639

Excerpt:

On Friday, Marilyn Hemingway and Christine Bond confirmed they've joined five other delegates supporting Obama. The remaining delegate, Tim Moore of Barnwell, said he is not yet ready to commit to anyone other than Edwards.

Is it any wonder McBush are so frightened of talking to America's "enemies"?

Saudis to Bush: No

These are the saddest of possible words: "Tinker to Evers to Chance." Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double -- Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."

Barack Obama dealt a Tinkers to Evers to Chance triple play yesterday (force at third). In one day he

1. Dispatched his primary opponent and pivoted to the General Election
2. Nailed Bush
3. Nailed McBush

On the only issue the GOP allegedly retains any credibility, any viability.

Some may have forgotten after the past year of interminable primaries that little of substance separates Clinton and Obama.

That is now past.....welcome to the General Election

People with tiny little brains like hussein tina ...
people who are FOR Hillary and AGAINST obama are basing their choice on
* Experience
* Intelligence
* Moral character
* policy

NOT on the fact that your guy is black.

get over yourselves... you think everything is about race and how wonderful you are because you're above race (those of you who are not black)...

How arrogant you all are... Just like that loser Obama with his big nose held so high in the air...

RaeK - it's an honor to be called arrogant and tiny-brained by you.

I'd cut me own throat if I thought you approved of one thing about me.

HEY ALL HILL SUPPORTERS, LISTEN UP!!

Obama is the terrorists' "worst nightmare" because he will unite the civilized world against them. Obama needs to turn McCain's bluster right back on him.

Obama is set to win the majority on Tuesday, and Hillary will be even more out. Americans can then think about their choices, McCain or Obama. No two could be more different. Do americans want 4 years of seeing young men with their legs blown off and faces burned and bodies brought back for nothing? Most polls say no to the war in iraq. McVain wants this to go on until 2013! Great plan you moron! Face it, this is our choice, and if the voters choose McVain then that is exactly what they deserve. Obama is our chance to have a brilliant,creative man who can surround himself with other intelligent leaders and stand in the international communitee as our greatest leader. America will really blow this chance if he is not elected. It is true that he is the greatest man to run for office since the Kennedy brothers were lost to us in the 1960s by the forces of evil.

Well, you have to admit Obama is a smooth-talker. I don't know how slick he is. He didn't convince me all that often. But he did a great job of bashing Bush for the Knesset remarks, and then tying McCain to them. He is definitely a smooth-talker.

Obama does seem to have the perfect opening, now that Bush fils is railing against everyone who ever suggested negotiating with terrorists or radicals in the Middle East to make a devastating point: "uh, you mean like your dad?" It was under the auspices of Bush pere that the Israelis and PLO started negotiating, at the Madrid conference, with the help of his secretary of state, James Baker, who recently wrote in the Iraq Study Group report that negotiating with enemies in the Middle East is crucial to putting U.S. foreign policy back on track:

"Dealing with Iran and Syria is controversial. Nevertheless, it is our view that in diplomacy, a nation can and should engage its adversaries and enemies to try to resolve conflicts and differences consistent with its own interests. Accordingly, the [U.S. and Iraq] should actively engage Iran and Syria in its diplomatic dialogue, without preconditions.
... There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United States to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts: Lebanon, Syria, and President Bush's June 2002 commitment to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. This commitment must include direct talks with, by, and between Israel, Lebanon, Palestinians (those who accept Israel's right to exist), and particularly Syria ...

The only lasting and secure peace will be a negotiated peace such as Israel has achieved with Egypt and Jordan."