Beware the Shock Doctrine

The bail out plan offered by the Bush administration has the distinct odor of the Shock Doctrine: using a crisis to scare the country into precipitous action that will increase executive department power and benefit wealthy Republican supporters.

Its brevity alone is a red flag. Its insistence on its acts being "non-reviewable" is outrageous but fully in tune with the fascist tendencies of the Bush presidency.

Here's the full text, and I note that I'm not the only one who thought of N. Klein's Shock Doctrine. Paul Krugman in the NY Times and Sebastian Mallaby in the W. Post have already written columns against it.

But Republicans in Congress are trying to pressure Democrats to give the Bushites all they want. This is classic Shock Doctrine stuff. Democrats need to resist this attempt to panic them and make sure this plan has real oversight, doesn't further benefit the rich and penalize everyone else, and incidentally, that it will actually work.

On Economy, Obama Offers Ideas, McCain Blames Rival

--that's the headline in today's Washington Post:

"As officials in Washington raced to put together a bailout plan for the nation's teetering financial system, Sen. John McCain hammered Sen. Barack Obama as part of the problem while Obama said any rescue should include a new stimulus package for working families. "

McCain, who has supported the Bush push for the deregulation that led to this crisis, whose main economic advisor was the architect of the deregulation that is most directly responsible for the banking crisis, and whose campaign manager and many other advisors were big time lobbyists deeply involved in gaming the system, attacked Obama for ties to one person (Franklin Raines) who was never an Obama advisor at all. In a separate story, the Post called this assertion "particularly dubious." Yet the McCain campaign cites the Post as their source.

McCain also attacked a former Fannie Mae exec who was briefly on Obama's vp selection committee, saying that Jim Johnson had been paid with "your money." But the Post points out:"the severance packages were paid by company shareholders, not taxpayers."

On the plan to save the economy currently being devised by members of the administration and Congress, the Post story quotes Obama yesterday: "We'd better do it in an intelligent, systematic, thoughtful fashion. I'm much less interested at this point in scoring political points than I am in making sure that we have a structure in place that is sound and is actually going to work."

Obama Press Conference Q & A on Economic Crisis

This is from Obama's press conference Friday--about 10 minutes.

Our President in Waiting

Barack Obama met Friday with economic experts
including former Fed chair Paul Volcker, former
Treasury Secs. Robert Rubin (D) and Paul O'Neill (R),
and financial wizard Warren Buffet. NY Mayor
Bloomberg (I) participated by phone.

This is What Leadership Looks Like

On the day that administration and congressional leaders announced that a plan was in the works to prevent what essentially would be Great Depression II, only globally, Barack Obama met with economic experts and made a statement, excerpts of which follow:

"In recent years, I have outlined plans that would have helped prevent the problems we now face, and yesterday I proposed the outlines of a plan that would establish a more stable and permanent solution to strengthen our financial system. Today, I fully support the effort of Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke to work in a bipartisan spirit with Congress to find this kind of solution.

In the coming days, I will more closely examine the details of the Treasury and Fed proposal, and as I do, I’ll work to ensure that it provides an effective emergency response by including four basic principles that my economic advisors and I just discussed this morning.

First, we cannot only have a plan for Wall Street. We must also help Main Street as well. I’m glad that our government is moving so quickly in addressing the crisis that threatens some of our biggest banks and corporations. But a similar crisis has threatened families, workers and homeowners for months and months and Washington has done far too little to help.

In the same bipartisan spirit that is being shown with regard to the crisis on Wall Street, I ask Senator McCain, President Bush, Republicans and Democrats to join me in supporting an emergency economic plan for working families – a plan that would help folks cope with rising gas and food prices, spark job creation through repair of our schools and roads, help states and cities avoid painful budget cuts and tax increases, help homeowners stay in their homes, and provide retooling assistance for America’s auto industry. John McCain and I can continue to argue about our different economic agendas for next year, but we should come together now to work on what this country urgently needs this year.

The second principle I would like to see in the emerging plan from the Treasury and the Fed is that our approach should be one of mutual responsibility and reciprocity. It must not be designed to reward particular companies or the irresponsible decisions of borrowers or lenders. It must not be designed to enhance the personal gain of CEOs and management. The recklessness of some of these executives has helped cause this mess, even as they walk away with multimillion dollar golden parachutes while taxpayers are left holding the bag. As taxpayers are asked to take extraordinary steps to protect our financial system, it is only appropriate that those who benefit be expected to contribute to the protection of American homeowners and the American economy. Just as support is not designed to payoff egregious executive compensation, it should not reward those who are ruthlessly foreclosing on American families.

Third, this plan must be temporary and coupled with tough new oversight and regulations of our financial institutions, and there must be a clear process to wind down this plan and restore private sector assets into private sector hands after restoring stability to the system. Taxpayers must share in any upside benefit that such stability brings.

Fourth, this plan should be part of a globally coordinated effort with our partners in the G-20. This is a worldwide issue, and while the United States can and will lead in stabilizing the credit markets, we should ask other nations, who share in this crisis, to be part of the solution as well.

One last point. We did not arrive at this crisis by some accident of history. What led us to this point was years and years of a philosophy in Washington and on Wall Street that viewed even common-sense regulation and oversight as unwise and unnecessary; that shredded consumer protections and loosened the rules of the road. CEOs and executives got reckless. Lobbyists got what they wanted. Politicians in both parties looked the other way until it was too late. And it is the American people who have paid the price. The events of this week have rendered a final verdict on that failed philosophy, and it will end if I am President of the United States.

Finally, given the gravity of this situation, and based on conversations I have had with both Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke, I will refrain from presenting a more detailed blue-print of how an immediate plan might be structured until I can fully review the details of the plan proposed by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. It is critical at this point that the markets and the public have confidence that their work will be unimpeded by partisan wrangling, and that leaders in both parties work in concert to solve the problem at hand.

I know these are difficult days. And I know there are a lot of families out there right now who are feeling anxiety – about their jobs, about their homes, about their retirement savings. But here’s what I also know. This isn’t a time for fear or panic. This is a time for resolve and for leadership. I know we can steer ourselves out of this crisis. That’s who we are. That’s what we’ve always done as Americans. Our nation has faced difficult times before. And at each of those moments, we’ve risen to meet the challenges as one people, and one nation. That is the America we need to be and can be today."

Who Advises McCain on the Economy?

Two Minute Drill: the Obama Plan

This is Obama's two minute message outlining his solutions to the economic crisis. The more detailed speech and text is in the post below.

This is Leadership in a Time of Crisis

Barack Obama on the Economic Meltdown and the Future

"Since this turmoil began over a year ago, the housing market has collapsed. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had to be effectively taken over by the government. Three of America’s five largest investment banks failed or have been sold off in distress. Yesterday, Wall Street suffered its worst losses since just after 9/11. We are in the most serious financial crisis in generations. Yet Senator McCain stood up yesterday and said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong...

Now I certainly don’t fault Senator McCain for all of the problems we’re facing, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. Because the truth is, what Senator McCain said yesterday fits with the same economic philosophy that he’s had for 26 years. It’s the philosophy that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down. It’s the philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise. It’s a philosophy that lets Washington lobbyists shred consumer protections and distort our economy so it works for the special interests instead of working people.

So let’s be clear: what we’ve seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed. And I am running for President of the United States because the dreams of the American people must not be endangered any more.

It’s time to put an end to a broken system in Washington that is breaking the American economy. It’s time for change that makes a real difference in your lives. If you want to understand the difference between how Senator McCain and I would govern as President, you can start by taking a look at how we’ve responded to this crisis. Because Senator McCain's approach was the same as the Bush Administration’s: support ideological policies that made the crisis more likely; do nothing as the crisis hits; and then scramble as the whole thing collapses. My approach has been to try to prevent this turmoil...

Make no mistake: my opponent is running for four more years of policies that will throw the economy further out of balance. His outrage at Wall Street would be more convincing if he wasn’t offering them more tax cuts. His call for fiscal responsibility would be believable if he wasn’t for more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and more of a trillion dollar war in Iraq paid for with deficit spending and borrowing from foreign creditors like China.

His newfound support for regulation bears no resemblance to his scornful attitude towards oversight and enforcement. John McCain cannot be trusted to reestablish proper oversight of our financial markets for one simple reason: he has shown time and again that he does not believe in it.

What has happened these last eight years is not some historical anomaly, so we know what to expect if we try these policies for another four. When lobbyists run your campaign, the special interests end up gaming the system. When the White House is hostile to any kind of oversight, corporations cut corners and consumers pay the price. When regulators are chosen for their disdain for regulation and we gut their ability to enforce the law, then the interests of the American people are not protected. It’s an ideology that intentionally breeds incompetence in Washington and irresponsibility on Wall Street, and it’s time to turn the page.

Just today, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book – you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem. But here’s the thing – this isn’t 9/11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out. I’ll provide it, John McCain won’t, and that’s the choice for the American people in this election. "

But I am running for President because we simply cannot afford four more years of an economic philosophy that works for Wall Street instead of Main Street, and ends up devastating both. I don’t want to wake up in four years to find that more Americans fell out of the middle-class, and more families lost their savings. I don’t want to see that our country failed to invest in our ability to compete, our children’s future was mortgaged on another mountain of debt, and our financial markets failed to find a firmer footing. This time – this election – is our chance to stand up and say: enough is enough! "

--Barack Obama in Golden Colorado on Tuesday. This speech talks in detail about the causes of the financial and economic crises, the proposals Obama made months ago, and what he will do as President.

The video above has the speech in full. It's 38 minutes but if you really want to know what Obama will do, multitask if you must but watch and listen. The prepared text is here.

McCain Running Away from Himself on the Economy

The Bush-McCain 500

The stock market plunged more than 500 points on Monday, and no one knows how far it will fall today. Government bailouts of several major financial institutions, the fire sale of others and now bankruptcy of one over the weekend led directly to this moment, but both the causes and the ultimate effects go far beyond the financial world of wealthy speculators that seems to be a world of its own.

Charlie Rose assembled a panel of economic experts and reporters, and I couldn't keep up with their doomsday predictions. There was talk of global recession, of a deep and longlasting recession in the U.S., of hard times extending into 2011 or 2012. Another group of economists on Larry King spoke of "a financial system that is coming apart at the seams."

Who is responsible? For the specific failures, a combination of deceptive managment, and overall a combination of greed, fear and ignorance. But for the broad failure of the economy that is likely to get much worse, the blame falls on the economic policies of the Bush administration and the McCain Congress that held power until the 06 election, by which time it was already too late to stop what is happening now.

Washington failed to regulate these industries, partly based on ideology, partly at the behest of lobbyists like those running the McCain campaign. The financial institution catastrophe can be traced to deregulation, specifically legislation passed with the leadership of Phil Gramm, the chief architect of McCain's economic philosophy and his likely Secretary of the Treasury.

The economic disaster for millions of Americans and potentially billions of people around the world also has its roots in the Bush-McCain economy of paying off the rich with tax cuts and paying out the wealth of the country to Halliburton and other crony corporations, resulting in a $500 billion deficit and the weakening of the dollar.

Add this to the money flowing to buy foreign oil and all the jobs that corporations exported, a process encouraged by Bush-McCain economics, and the result is high unemployment that is going to go even higher, low consumer confidence and drops in U.S. production.

When all of this came to a head Monday, John McCain insisted that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong." That's what Herbert Hoover said as America plunged into the Great Depression.

So now Americans have to decide whether they are going to entrust this dangerous situation to John McCain, who has supported the policies that led to this ongoing catastrophe, even though he admits he doesn't know much about economics, and his VP candidate Palin, who increased debt as mayor and governor, and whose chief economic accomplishment in both offices was to extract millions from the federal government for pet projects.

Or will they turn to the Democrats, to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who have both warned on the record that those Bush-McCain policies were going to lead to disaster, and who already have plans to attack these problems and repair this economy spiraling out of control, with judicious policies (advised by economists who managed the prosperity and budget surplus of the Bill Clinton years) and bold plans to protect jobs and pensions and social security, and to re-industrialize America with a Green Deal for the future.

That choice is only going to become more dramatic in the coming weeks.

Read My Lipstick

The top two signs are from a grassroots
rally in Alaska, the third from an Obama
appearance in New Hampshire over the weekend.

This Cancels the Future

Who has the knowledge, judgment and temperament
to be entrusted with the power to destroy the future
in an instant? Aren't we pretty sure who doesn't? And
what does that say about the judgment and values of
the candidate responsible for the least qualified VP
candidate since Hiroshima? A candidate who is over
70, with a history of serious illness?

Finger on the Button

Over the past few days, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin has proven that she's not ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, yet John McCain appointed her to be just that, knowing the risks of his own age and medical record.

In her one and only national interview, she didn't know a fundamental principle of the Bush foreign policy and she spoke recklessly about war with Russia. Earlier she told troops on their way to Iraq that the war there was linked to 9-11, and despite her reinterpretation of her own remarks, she said that the war in Iraq is God's plan.

Shortly before McCain appointed her, Karl Rove said somebody like Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia--who had been mayor of Richmond and Lt. Governor of this populous and complex state as well as Governor--was not qualified to be vice-president because those offices weren't sufficient experience in foreign policy. John McCain himself said in May of this year, " I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time."

Yet now McCain and the Republicans contend that the person who has been the mayor of a remote town with a population that can fit into a gym, and governor for less than two years of a state with a population of a middle-sized city, is ready to be thrust into the responsibility of dealing with crises that could mean war, and in the case of Russia, possibly nuclear war.

Are we really that eager to risk Armageddon? Because that's what it comes down to.

The GOPers have made much of the type of experience VP candidate Palin has had, in being a mayor and governor. GOPer leaders escalated their rhetoric to claim that she is more experienced than Obama, and in fact more experienced than Obama and VP candidate Biden put together.

Really? How many world leaders has she met? How many experts on foreign policy has she studied, grilled, talked with at length over a period of years? How has her knowledge and judgment been tested?

Senator Obama is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (and Joe Biden is its chair.) They have engaged countless experts on every part of the world, giving testimony before that committee. Senator Obama is also a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Matters affecting national security in real world terms come before these committees. Slogans don't last long when the real world has to be faced.

How many position papers has Palin produced? Are they on her official website for all to see and judge, as they have been for nearly two years on candidate Obama's?

How many foreign policy experts and distinguished generals and admirals have been advising VP candidate Palin for the past two years, as they have been advising Senator Obama as part of his campaign for the presidency? How many former Secretaries of State, respected foreign policy experts, generals and admirals have endorsed her fitness, as they have Barack Obama?

There are two components to the commander-in-chief test: knowledge and judgment. VP candidate Palin does not have the knowledge necessary to be that close to The Button. Her recent interview is the only time that she has spoken about foreign affairs on the national public record, while Obama and Biden have spoken many times on many intricate foreign policy subjects on the record, and have been questioned by the media, by experts and other leaders. But simply on the evidence of this interview, she does not demonstrate either the knowledge or judgment.

Candidate John McCain's judgment has to be called into question for selecting VP candidate Palin. This was John McCain's first presidential decision: to put politics above country in the most extreme and obvious way. It is a decision that endangers America, the world and the future.

Barack Obama's first presidential decision was to choose Senator Joe Biden as his VP candidate--who is an acknowledged expert in foreign affairs, with more than 20 years of intimate experience, as well as being very knowledgeable about a range of domestic issues. No leader in either party can seriously question Biden's qualifications to function as President, should that become necessary.

But this is not the first evidence that McCain's judgment is faulty. He's shown bad judgment on foreign policy issues. He is wrong on Iraq, and was wrong about Iraq from the start--he supported the invasion of Iraq even before Bush made his false case for this war. He is dangerously reckless in his comments on Russia. His temperament has been questioned by leaders in his own party who say he is too hot-headed, and the prospect of McCain with his finger on the button scares them.

Barack Obama was right on Iraq. On his recent trip to Iraq, its president agreed with his policy on a timetable for withdrawing American troops. Obama's other meetings with world leaders on that trip demonstrated not only that he is ready to be a world leader, but that he is a world leader already.

Electing John McCain as President places America in grave danger, because of his judgment and temperament. VP Palin doesn't have the judgment or the knowledge to function as commander in chief. She will be prey to people around her, with no independent knowledge to even question what she's told.
And while some fundamentalists may be quite happy about her views on God's guidance of the Iraq war, or the coming Rapture of the righteous, for most Americans, having an uninformed zealot with a finger over the button is rightly terrifying.

Yet if John McCain is elected, VP Palin would would be a heartbeat away from succeeding a man in his 70s with a history of cancer. This nightmare scenario is not a cheesy TV movie. Unless the American people wake up, it could become a reality.

Texas in the Crosshairs

Hurricane Ike is headed to Texas, and forecasters
warn of catastrophic storm surges (noted in this
map) and winds. Galveston is particularly endangered,
and possibly Houston. Map from Weather Underground.

It's About the Future: Get Serious

"The McCain campaign would much rather have the story [be]about a phony and foolish diversion than about the future. Enough! I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies, phony outrage and swiftboat politics. Enough is enough! These are serious times and they call for a serious debate about where we need to take the nation."

McShame Campaign

McCain's machine-gun series of lies, each more outrageous than the last, is so desperate and so transparent that even the news media is nearly unanimous in calling him on it.

That apparently is part of the point, for it seems that just about the only thing the McCain campaign tells the truth about is its own tactics. It's campaign director announced last week that they didn't want this campaign to be about issues that actually make a difference in people's lives, for good or ill. Now to a Washington Post reporter, doing a story on how McCain and Palin continue to make assertions of fact that have been proven not to be true--in other words, they're lying--GOPer strategist John Feehery told the Post, on the record, that:

...the campaign is entering a stage in which skirmishes over the facts are less important than the dominant themes that are forming voters' opinions of the candidates.

"The more the New York Times and the Washington Post go after Sarah Palin, the better off she is, because there's a bigger truth out there and the bigger truths are she's new, she's popular in Alaska and she is an insurgent," Feehery said. "As long as those are out there, these little facts don't really matter."

The McCain campaign hit a new low--at least as of Wednesday--when it lied and distorted the truth in an ad about Obama's vote in the Illinois legislature on a bill that included funds to teach kindergarteners about how to deal with sexual predators. Here's what Obama said about this bill in 2004 (which didn't pass anyway), according to the New York Times:

“I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old daughter, and one of the things my wife and I talked to our daughter about is the possibility of somebody touching them inappropriately, and what that might mean,” Mr. Obama said in 2004. “And that was included specifically in the law, so that kindergarteners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse, because I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age.”

But the McCain campaign doesn't care about children, or women, or "the issues"--all the people who suffer and die because they can't get timely adequate health care, all the people who are losing their homes-- their homes; all the people being butchered and dying in Iraq; people losing jobs in a worsening economic crisis, an onrushing crisis in energy, the fate of the planet and the future. "Country First" is the biggest of Big Lies. The McCain campaign is all about winning--about the lobbyists and insiders in charge of the McCain campaign keeping their power and serving their wealthy clients, by fighting change and robbing taxpayers.

They don't care about the truth at all, which has flummoxed members of the media. "This is not false naivete, "writes E. J. Dionne, "I am genuinely surprised that John McCain and his campaign keep throwing out false charges and making false claims without any qualms." But it appears that McCain-Palin are not only set on continuing Bush policies on the issues they don't want to talk about, they are continuing and accelerating the Bush administration disdain for the truth and for the Constitution.

Referencing the 'lipstick on a pig' remark that the McCain campaign deliberately distorted, Barack Obama addressed this directly on Wednesday (the video clip will be posted above.) Part of what he said:

"What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country. They seize on an innocent remark, throw out an outrageous ad because they know it is catnip for the media. It would be funny except for the news media decided that was the lead story yesterday. The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversion than about the future."

Enough! I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies, phony outrage and swiftboat politics. Enough is enough! These are serious times and they call for a serious debate about where we need to take the nation. We can't take another four years that were like the last eight. Spare me the phony outrage. Spare me the phony talk about change. We have real problems in this country right now and the American people are looking to us for answers. Not distractions, not diversions not manipulations they are looking for real answers. That's the type of debate I attempt to have."

Remember What This is About

The Problem with Polls, Eugene McCarthy Told Me

"The problem with polls," Eugene McCarthy told me, "is that your campaign reads them."

While looking for something else, I ran across this quote in an old story I did for the Boston Phoenix. But it certainly jumped out, in view of this week--the worst polling week of the campaign for Obama.

McCarthy had been saying that polls weren't always accurate, they weren't always relevant, and the only poll that counted was on election day. But if they were good, your campaign people could get complacent. And if they were bad, they could get discouraged. Both are bad, but this year in particular, discouragement is worse.

Everybody knew that if John McCain was ever going to move up in the polls it would be this week, with his convention bump. Of course, many Obama supporters were hoping it wouldn't happen, in which case the election would seem pretty much in the bag. Now they may be worried that the polls will stay favorable to McCain, especially since there isn't another big event on the horizon that might change them, at least until the first debate. (And if McCain's numbers go down before then, Chuck Todd of NBC says, it suggests that the Palin Effect is wearing off. Because most if not all of McCain's bump is due to Palin.)

There are lots of questions about these polls anyway. They may have oversampled Republicans (there are undeniably more GOPers in the latest Gallup poll than there were in July's,) and don't reflect Democratic registration gains. Still, the movement for McCain has resulted in him coming closer, or moving only slightly ahead. And while a number of favorables for McCain jumped up in the NBC poll, they also increased for Obama--often pushing him over the 50% mark.

But bad poll numbers can discourage people in their first campaign, who aren't used to the ups and downs. They can discourage veteran campaigners and observers, as we "catastrophize," and recall again the bewildering behavior of voters in every presidential election since Jimmy Carter, except two. It evokes our fears that voters aren't taking this seriously, that they look at this election with all the seriousness of voting for an American Idol.

There's nothing wrong with a little motivating fear. But this year in particular, any real discouragement and consequent lack of optimistic action could be deadly.

Why? Because (I believe) this election is going to be won on enthusiasm.

It's a change election. The electorate itself is changing, as America is becoming more diverse and more young people are getting politically aware and involved. But we may not be past the point of no return yet. The people who have been running things are powerful and they aren't giving up.

Enthusiasm is particularly important for the two most crucial segments of the electorate for Obama's victory: young people and African Americans.

If young people become defeatist, turn bitter and cynical, they not only may fail to vote in sufficient numbers, but they deprive the campaign of the energy and enthusiasm that fuels voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. Young voters represent the future that everybody should be voting on.

The African American vote is also imperiled by discouragement. I saw Oakland CA performer and activist Donald Lacy do his one-man show, "Color Struck," this past weekend. From the stage he expressed wonderment at Obama's nomination, but couldn't quite believe that America is going to elect a black man to the presidency. After the performance he came out into the lobby wearing an Obama t-shirt. But in conversation he seemed even more skeptical. Somehow, Obama is going to be prevented from winning. But...he was still wearing that t-shirt.

From what I've heard before, this seems like a common attitude in the African American community. Their enthusiasm is going to drive them to the polls, or their discouragement is going to keep them home.

That's why the worst thing about polls is that your campaign reads them. Reading them is one thing. Taking them to heart is another.

Obama folks, you can't control the media, or what Obama says or doesn't say. You have power over only yourself. Over what you do, and how you do it. Enthusiasm is infectious. And that's going to be very, very important.

Remember how this started?

Yes, we can.

What Do You Talk About When You Can't Explain?

"THE SILENCE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS DEAFENING. IT WAS DEAFENING. ON JOBS, ON HEALTH CARE, ON ENVIRONMENT, ON ALL THE THINGS THAT MATTER TO THE PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS I GREW UP IN. ..What do you talk about when you CANNOT EXPLAIN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF FAILURE?" Joe Biden in PA today.

Obama Response

"You're hearing a lot about me, most of which isn't true. What you're not hearing is a lot about you."

Smug Lies

A Short Catalog of Big Lies

Here's a short catalog of big lies candidate for Vice-President Palin and other speakers at the Republican convention have told about themselves and Barack Obama, plus several more that the McCain campaign is otherwise promoting, compiled by the Associated Press.

Perhaps the biggest distortion are on taxes. Palin and others insisted that Obama will raise taxes on most Americans. It's not true, according to non-partisan observers such as the Tax Policy Center, which found that Obama's middle class TAX CUTS "would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually."

And if you heard the speeches last night, you know that misstating the facts wasn't the worst of it. This is the party of resentment, bitterness, spite and barely concealed hate. It's time for a change.

Which President Do You Believe?

President Bush: "The man we need is John McCain. "
















President Clinton: Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States."

Obama in Milwaukee

"Because if there’s a poor child out there, that’s my child. If there’s a senior that’s having trouble, that’s my grandparent. If there’s a guy who’s lost his job, that’s my brother. If there’s a woman out there without healthcare, that’s my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for. "

Obama in Milwaukee: the Video

This is the whole 12 minute speech. The quoted lines begin about 7 minutes in, but it's a great short speech as a whole.

Obama: Quiet Storms

On Monday, Barack Obama kept his schedule of appearances but cut back on the partisan content of his remarks in Michigan and Wisconsin. But addressing a Labor Day audience in Milwaukee, after noting how unions have improved life for working people, and how people united can do more than each of us alone, he spoke of the values at the core of his campaign. I saw some video--and I plan to post it when it becomes available--and he was not speaking from a text or notes, but from the heart. Here is the last part of what he said, as quoted by Jay Newton-Small of Time, who said "he was as good as I've ever heard him."

"That spirit of looking out for one another, that core value that says I am my brothers’ keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that spirit is most evident during times of great tragedy, it’s most evident during times of great hardship, it’s most evident when natural disasters strike because we understand that only God has control and so it takes it out of the realm of politics. We all understand that we have to come together.

But that spirit can’t just be restricted to moments of great catastrophe. Because as I stand here today and look out at the thousands of folks who have gathered here today, I know that there’s some folks that are going through their own quiet storms.
[…]
There’re people out there who’ve seen their jobs shipped overseas. There’re people out there who don’t have healthcare, maybe they’ve been trying to pay it on a credit card but mostly they’ve just been putting off trying to see a doctor. There’re seniors out there that don’t know how they’re going to pay their home heating bill this winter. There are folks out there that don’t know how they’re going to fill up the gas tank. There are young people in this audience right now that have graduated from high school, have the grades and want to go to college, but don’t have the money. There are young people being born in the inner cities, right here in Milwaukee, that don’t see any prospects for the future that think the only path available to them is a casket or a jail cell.

All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people. We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody’s going to get knocked down.

Every once in a while somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so that the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf that’s the spirit that we’ve got to carry with us each and every day. That’s the spirit that we need in our own homes and it’s the spirit that we need in the White House. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.

Because if there’s a poor child out there, that’s my child. If there’s a senior that’s having trouble, that’s my grandparent. If there’s a guy who’s lost his job, that’s my brother. If there’s a woman out there without healthcare, that’s my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for. "

--Barack Obama Milwaukee, Wisconsin Sept. 1, 2008

The Obama Bounce

While Barack Obama and Joe Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio after the Dem convention (they're with Steelers coach Mike Tomlin in the second photo down, and that's John Glenn with them in the third) Americans were talking to pollsters. Today's Gallup poll--the traditional measure of a convention bounce--shows that Obama increased his lead, and is at the magic 50% mark, with McCain at 43. A CBS poll today shows a slightly larger 8 point lead.

Here's how the USA Today story about the Gallup poll begins:The Democratic National Convention significantly boosted Americans' views of Barack Obama as a strong leader who "shares your values" and can manage the economy and Iraq, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Saturday and Sunday finds. Republican John McCain's advantage in handling terrorism was dramatically reduced and his "unfavorable" rating ticked up to its highest level this year."

The story also notes: On personal characteristics, Obama has eliminated McCain's advantage over him as "a strong and decisive leader." By 46%-44%, those surveyed say that characteristic applies more to Obama than McCain. Before the convention, McCain held an eight-point advantage. Obama has a 13-point advantage as someone who "shares your values," double the edge he held before the convention. He has an eight-point advantage as someone who is "honest and trustworthy; before the convention, they were ranked equally on that quality."

Hurricane Update

Gustav is still a hurricane, and has cut off power in Baton Rouge. New Orleans lucked out--the levees survived the initial storm surge and it didn't get the quantity of rain so far that it could have. But at this hour at least one levee is threatened, so flooding in part of the city is still possible, perhaps likely.

Meanwhile, hurricane Hanna is likely to make landfall on the East Coast this week, and another hurricane is building, perhaps two more.

Landfall Monday

Gustav is expected to arrive sooner but maybe

not as strong as predicted earlier, but the timing

is tricky. It may make landfall as a category 3 between noon and

2pm, and may catch high tide, which will increase

the storm surge. So far it is tracking west of New

Orleans, and the predicted storm surge will test

the levees. It's a big storm with lots of rain and

potential for tornadoes. Texas is apt to get quite

a bit of rain from it over the next few days.