The Republicans know they can't win this thing... fairly. That's why we are now seeing "tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states," removed from the rolls or blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.
ALBUQUERQUE – Senator John McCain pressed his strategy of trying to sow doubts about Senator Barack Obama during the closing month of the campaign by asking a crowd at a rowdy rally here Monday: “Who is the real Barack Obama?’’
That question came in a sharply-worded speech in which Mr. McCain dismissed Mr. Obama as “a Chicago politician,’’ said that the Obama campaign had had to return “$33,000 in illegal foreign funds from Palestinian donors,’’ and sought to raise questions and doubts about Mr. Obama’s background. The speech came as the McCain campaign has opened a series of verbal assaults on Mr. Obama as it tries to turn the page on the financial crisis, which many analysts believe has rallied support to the Democrats. But even as Mr. McCain gave the sharper-edged speech, the stock market was plunging.
In the speech, Mr. McCain repeatedly tried to paint Mr. Obama as a largely unknown, risky choice. “I didn’t just show up out of nowhere,’’ Mr. McCain said to cheers, seeking to draw a contrast with Mr. Obama. He said that “even at this late hour in the campaign, there are essential things we don’t know about Senator Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign.’’
Mr. McCain decried what he called Mr. Obama’s “touchiness every time he is questioned about his record.’’
“For a guy who’s already authored two memoirs, he’s not exactly an open book,’’ Mr. McCain said. “It’s as if somehow the usual rules don’t apply, and where other candidates have to explain themselves and their records, Senator Obama seems to think he is above all that. Whatever the question, whatever the issue, there’s always a back story with Senator Obama. All people want to know is: What has this man ever actually accomplished in government? What does he plan for America? In short: Who is the real Barack Obama? But, my friends, you ask such questions and all you get in response is another angry barrage of angry insults.’’
Mr. McCain complained that “whenever I have questioned his policies or his record, he has called me a liar,’’ even as he accused Mr. Obama of lying about his record.
“Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis,’’ he said. “I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.’’
Mr. McCain’s return to Washington during negotiations of the financial bail-out bill was criticized by some participants for complicating its passage by injecting presidential politics in the mix, and the bill’s initial demise was widely attributed to the failure of House Republicans to support it. But Mr. McCain faulted Mr. Obama and the Democrats for going slow on the bailout package.
“Today the Dow has fallen below 10,000,’’ he said. “And yet, members of his own party said they felt no pressure to vote for the bill. Why didn’t Senator Obama work to pass this bill from the start? Why did he let it fail and drag out this crisis for a full week before doing a thing to help pass it?’’
The crowd booed mentions of Mr. Obama repeatedly, and several men called out again and again that Mr. Obama was a “liar,’’ and yelled “send him home!”
The Obama campaign responded that Mr. McCain was “angry.”
“On a day when the markets are plunging and the credit crisis is putting millions of jobs at risk, the one truly angry candidate in this race kept up his strategy of ‘turning the page’ on the economy by unleashing another frustrated tirade against Barack Obama,’’ Tommy Vietor, an Obama campaign spokesman, said in a statement.
Under the Bush regime, the top earning 400 Americans have seen their wealth increase by $670 billion dollars. That's not a joke.
Sarah Palin said Friday several of Barack Obama's comments about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been "reckless" and disqualify the Illinois senator for consideration as the next commander-in-chief.
The comments are among the Alaska governor's most pointed to date regarding the Democratic presidential candidate's readiness to serve and come one day after she aggressively jousted with Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden.
"Some of his comments that he has made about the war…I think, in my world, disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander-in-chief," Palin told Fox News Friday. "Some of the comments he's made about Afghanistan, what we are doing there, supposedly just air-raiding villages and killing civilians — that's reckless."
Palin was referring to an answer Barack Obama gave at a August 2007 town hall meeting with New Hampshire voters, during which the Illinois senator was asked whether he had plans to shift U.S. troops out of Iraq to other terrorist hotspots like Afghanistan.
"We've got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there," Obama said of the U.S.'s mission in Afghanistan.
Those comments were immediately seized by GOP critics. The Republican National Committee sent out a press release shortly after calling them "offensive," and demanding he apologize. The McCain campaign has also highlighted the comments several times this campaign season. An AP Fact Check later reported Western forces had been killing civilians at a higher rate than insurgents.
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