Memo to the G.O.P.: Step Lightly Folks….

The question is…. Will it work?

The Story: GOP sees Rev. Wright as pathway to victory (Via Politico.com)

Quote:

For months, Republican party officials have watched with increasing trepidation as Barack Obama has shattered fundraising records, packed arena after arena with shrieking fans and pulled in significant Republican and independent votes.
Now, with the emergence of the notorious video showing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright damning the country, criticizing Israel, faulting U.S. policy for the Sept. 11 attacks and generally lashing out against white America, GOP strategists believe they’ve finally found an antidote to Obamamania.

In their view, the inflammatory sermons by Obama’s pastor offer the party a pathway to victory if Obama emerges as the Democratic nominee. Not only will the video clips enable some elements of the party to define him as unpatriotic, they will also serve as a powerful motivating force for the conservative base.

The G.O.P. has indeed been looking for some ammo to use against Obama.

The real question is, will it work? At first blush, one would say "yes, absolutely!” However, thinking about it more, it could come back to haunt the G.O.P, some Liberal 527 group could come along and attempt to paint an attack of that sort as a racial attack against Obama and try to paint the G.O.P. as utterly racist.

If I were the G.O.P., I would be very, very, very, careful in how I approached this, because handled the wrong way, could and possibly would, come back to haunt the G.O.P, in November and would only serve to strengthen the Democrats and Obama’s Campaign.

So, as the title of this entry says… Step Lightly folks, or it could backfire on you.

Just a thought.

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Playbook TV from Politico

Here’s today’s edition of Playbook TV from Politico.com, while I attempt to wake up, read my e-mails, and generally figure out what the heck I want to Blog about…

Keith Olbermann's Worst Persons in The World

Here’s the Worst persons:

Bronze: Himself (Keith, that is) for blaming the New York Times Editor for hiring William Kristol, because of his writing about Obama with bad facts from NewsMax (I bet that was an interesting phone call! "What the hell you blaming me for? I didn’t hire the idiot!)

Silver: Rupert Murdock for royally screwing his 99 year old Mom. (Beware, that site is quite slow.)

Gold: Republican Presidential John McCain’s Now infamous Gaffe.

To Gaffe or not to Gaffe…..

The other large headline in the world of Politics is McCain’s supposed Gaffe about the war on terror. This was posted on the Washington Post’s Blog, or one of them at least. Although, right at the moment, I cannot seem to bring up the Blog, looks like the Washington Post needs to get better hosting for their Blog or better servers.

Of course, the Neo-Conservative apologists are coming out in full force defending John McCain and saying he was right in the first place, armed with talking points galore, they look more like Amway salesman, than they do political pundits.

Whether or not the statement was a gaffe or not, is quite frankly irrelevant in my mind. It overlooks the broader issue, that this so called “war” in Iraq was, in fact, a tragic mistake, that was based upon bad intelligence, some say cooked, I won’t go that far, as I do not know personally, as I was not there. But the fact remains is, President George W. Bush foolishly bought the false intelligence and the Neo-Conservative lie, that we could and would dominate the world through Military might, and now we are living in the great chasm that is the Iraq disaster.

Anyone that sees the war and how we go pulled into this landmine filled field of foolishness, any other way, is, in fact, defending the Neo-Conservative flawed worldview. Heck, even the late William Buckley denounced what Bush was doing as wrong. What more do we need, to believe what has happened in Iraq was wrong?

What amazes me is the ignorance of the people that defend McCain and his continuation of the flawed polices of George W. Bush. They know no bounds, and that worries me, greatly.

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Obama's Speech

Here is the Video, a link to the transcript and my personal reaction.

Here it is:

Transcript is available at TPM Election Central

Okay here is my official reaction. I watched the entire speech. At first, I thought, "Oh Boy, here he goes into his regular talking points." However, as I continued to watch, he began to discuss the current situation, and I feel he addressed them as best he could, given the situation that he is in.

I am however, quite dismayed of the reaction among the conservatives within the Blogging community. They are just downright dismissive, and that, frankly bothers me, how is it, that the party that was, during it's formative years, the party of Anti-Slavery, is dismissive of a man, who is in one of the most unique of circumstances? How can they be so vile and hateful towards a man, that is doing his utter damnedest to calm down a situation, that was not of his own doing, you know who you are, You are Bastards! All of you! You should hang your God-forsaken heads in shame! You are doing absolutely nothing to further the discourse of the discussion of this election, instead, you are retreating to the cowardly corners of your Political Ideologies. May the Almighty God be your Judge! Again, I say, you ALL know who you are!

Anyhow, that's my reaction, I like it, I did feel, however, that he could have went a bit further, however, one must realize, that he is walking a tightrope, between not alienating himself from the black community, all elements of it, and not alienating the rest of America as well. It is not an easy thing to do.

Hopefully, this speech will quell the nonsense within the media. At least it is a start on Obama's part.

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Breaking News: Gov. David Paterson and wife Admit to extramarital affairs

Freaking Jesus Already, can’t the married people in New York keep it in their pants? WOW!

The Story: Newly Elected Governor David Paterson Admits to affair (via New York Daily News)

Quote:

The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state’s new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs.
In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.
In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999.

Man, this is crazy, first a Governor resigns over buying hookers, and now the newly minted admits that he had an affair??!?!? What is it with New Yorkers and out of control sex? Holy Cow!

Are these people taking cues from the Mayor of Detroit or what?

It just keeps getting interesting by the minute.

Other Bloggers covering this: Talking Points Memo, TownHall Blog, protein wisdom, Little Green Footballs, Gawker, Gothamist, Wonkette, michellemalkin.com, Ben Smith’s Blogs, Scared Monkeys, New York Magazine, TPM Election Central, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Gateway Pundit

Too Little….Too Late….

Sorry say it. But………………..

The Story: Obama plans major race speech tomorrow (Via Politico.com)

Barack Obama will give a major speech on "the larger issue of race in this campaign," he told reporters in Monaca, PA just now.
He was pressed there, as he has been at recent appearances, on statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.
"I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright, but the larger issue of race in this campaign," he said.
He added that he would "talk about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church issue for example," he said.
He also briefly defended Wright from the image that has come through in a handful of repeatedly televised clips from recent Wright sermons.
"The caricature that’s being painted of him is not accurate," he said.
The speech could offer Obama an opportunity to move past the controversy over his pastor, and to turn the conversation to a topic he’d rather focus on: his Christian faith. But the speech also guarantees that the Wright story will continue to dominate political headlines.
Mitt Romney’s attempt directly to address his Mormonism last year never decisively put the issue to rest for some voters.

Obama’s schedule puts him in Philadelphia tomorrow.

Sorry to say it, But I think that it is basically too little, too late. The damage is done. He may try and distance himself from his Pastor, But the fact remains, But Jeremiah Wright is his Pastor.

Judging from the polls, his popularity is gone.

Should have thought about that preacher thing before running, Barry.

Others: Marc Ambinder, The Swamp, The New Republic, Ankle Biting Pundits, Wonkette, Donklephant, Classical Values, Gateway Pundit, QandO, Hot Air, PunditGuy and Macsmind (H/T Memeorandum)

Shocka!: William Kristol fudges the facts while writing his Anti-Obama Article at The New York Times

Well now, here’s a big surprise! (Well, maybe not….)

The Story: Kristol Fails To Check His Sources, And So Bungles Key Fact In Anti-Obama Column (Marc Ambinder) – (via The Atlantic)

Well it seems Mr. Kristol used one of the worst news sources…. NewsMax! Ugh… No wonder. Anyhow, here’s the fudged fact:

But Ronald Kessler, a journalist who has written about Wright’s ministry, claims that Obama was in fact in the pews at Trinity last July 22. That’s when Wright blamed the “arrogance” of the “United States of White America” for much of the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks. In any case, given the apparent frequency of such statements in Wright’s preaching and their centrality to his worldview, the pretense that over all these years Obama had no idea that Wright was saying such things is hard to sustain.

The Problem is, According to Ambinder and the facts:

The error is in trusting the source without checking.
The truth is that Obama did not attend church on July 22.
He was on his way to campaign in Miami.

There is video evidence to support this, if you go to Ambinder’s article, there is a link to it.

The point of this entry is this, wasn’t this why Kristol was fired/let go/was ask to quit Time? I seem to recall that there was a huge stink about him being released from Time, because of his constant fudging of the truth.

Of course, this is a Republican we are talking about here, and in the tradition of the Republicans or more specifically here Neo-Conservatives, The truth is usually optional, when it comes to furthering your political agenda. Just ask George W. Bush.

Update: Here is the Video, Proving Obama was not in that Church.

Update #2: Kristol Writes:

In this column, I cite a report that Sen. Obama had attended services at Trinity Church on July 22, 2007. The Obama campaign has provided information showing that Senator Obama did not attend Trinity that day. I regret the error.

Yeah, I bet he regrets the error, Lying stack of crap. He most likely got told, print a retraction or kiss your job goodbye. Which is more than this moron deserves, his track record for telling factual stories isn’t the greatest.

Also via the Huffington Post:

But according to the Washington Post’s presidential tracker, Obama did, in fact, make an "appearance" in Chicago on the morning in question: July 22, 2002. He also, later in the day, flew to Miami for a speech.
Obama’s spokesperson Tommy Vietor confirmed that the schedule was accurate but stressed that the senator did not make a stop at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.
"We have reviewed his schedule," he wrote. "He didn’t go to church that day."
Which is perfectly plausible. Just because Obama was in Chicago doesn’t mean he attended church. But he was, in fact, in Chicago that morning.
Of course, not to be lost in all of this is the fantastically poor job Kristol did in his column in which he apparently failed to run a basic Google search, or, for that matter, call the Obama campaign.
The Times must be proud.

Not mention the Republicans themselves, Not the formal G.O.P., I’m talking about their Operatives, Rupert Murdock’s boys (and Girls!) spreading the stupid misinformation. Like I’ve said a bunch of times in the past. I’m all for debating the issues and all, and sorting out the differences between the Democrats and Republicans, but using underhanded tactics like this, is just flipping wrong. Before anyone comes and says it, yes, I am quite aware that the Democrat’s do the same stuff, and yes, I do think that it is wrong and Yes, I will bitch to the high heavens about it on this Blog, if and when it happens. You can bank on it.

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Then why in the heck did he even bother to run?????

Good grief, the more I hear about this stupid story, the more I wonder about Obama’s Judgement Ability.

The story: The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was an early concern, Obama aide admits (via LATIMES)

Quote:

After he moved to Chicago in the mid-1980s to work as a community organizer, Barack Obama forged close ties with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — joining the pastor’s Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988 and using the topic of a Wright sermon, "the audacity of hope," as the title of his most recent best-selling book.
But more than a year ago — long before some of Wright’s more incendiary sermons became hot-button videos on YouTube, forcing Obama to publicly renounce his pastor last week — the Obama campaign had a sense that Wright’s sharp tongue might spell trouble for the Illinois senator. (For a sermon sample, click on the Read more line below.)
That was the word anyway Sunday from Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, who acknowledged during a conference call with reporters that Wright was disinvited …
from Obama’s official candidacy announcement on Feb. 10, 2007, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill.
Wright had been expected to lead an invocation of some kind, but never appeared.
“There was no doubt that there was controversy surrounding him,” Axelrod said Sunday. “And we didn’t want to expose him … [or] make him the target and a distraction on a day when Sen. Obama was going to announce his candidacy.”

My question is, if Obama was keenly aware of this man’s hateful rhetoric, then why the heck did he even bother running for President? I mean, to be quite honest with you, from what I’m reading across the Blogs, people are becoming quite concerned with his campaign.

I, Indeed, have some worries about his ability to lead the country, if he cannot make judgement calls, as simple as that one.

I'll be the first to admit, like John McCain, I don't know jack about economics or for that matter, Wealth!

Yeah, that’s right. I’m about helpful as a blind man in a library, when it comes to this sort of stuff.

The Story: JPMorgan Acts to Buy Ailing Bear Stearns at Huge Discount (Via New York Times)

Bear Stearns, pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by what amounted to a run on the bank, agreed late Sunday to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase for a mere $2 a share, narrowly averting a collapse that threatened to cascade through the financial system.
The price represents a startling 93 percent discount to Bear Stearns’ closing stock price on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bankers and policy makers raced to complete the deal before financial markets in Asia opened on Monday, as fears grew that the financial panic could spread if Bear Stearns failed to find a buyer.
The deal, done at the behest of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, punctuates the stunning downfall of one of Wall Street’s biggest and most storied firms. Bear Stearns weathered the vagaries of the markets for 85 years, surviving the Depression and a dozen recessions only to meet its end in the rapidly unfolding credit crisis now afflicting the American economy.

My first reaction, when I saw this was, "Why should I even remotely give a rip?" However, it does show the full fall out of the sub-prime loan debacle that the Nation is dealing with, which isn’t helping the economy.

Yeah, from what I have read around the Blogs and from what I have seen on the T.V. we are headed into another Recession. Which is not a good thing. I guess it just means that the rest of the United States is catching up with Michigan.

Now, the nasty A-hole part of me, who kind of has a inbred hatred of people, who have more money that I do, thinks, "Ha Ha Guys! How’s it feel to lose everything and be broke, like I’ve been for the past couple of years??" But that’s a bit nasty and I try to avoid such thoughts.

I’m just hoping that this doesn’t trigger a mass sell off and a stock market crash, that would suck, because a full scale depression, is the LAST thing we need, right now.

Now, I’m not a capitalist freak, (You wouldn’t know it, by all the ads on my blog… *grin*) However, a certain amount of it, is acceptable, and a certain amount of it is needed to make the country work. So, I would hate to see the World’s Economy go to pot.

Anyway, that’s my take on it, from a Lower Middle class type of guy’s view.

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