Fascinating Map

I couldn't insert the map on the blog, but go here to see a map that breaks down the 2008 presidential election color coded by who won each congressional district. Blue=Obama, Red=McCain. As we all know, Barack dominated the contest in total votes, percentage of votes, and electoral votes. However, if the election were based on something completely arbitrary, say the cumulative square miles of congressional districts won, McCain would have taken the 2008 election to the house.

The big takeaway is this: Democrats dominate in small, densely populated areas and Republicans wipe the floor in wide open, rural regions. A question came up in my civics class the other day about why this is the case. I thought I knew the answer, but after putting some thought into it, I'm not sure what the real reasons are for this phenomenon. Thoughts?

Non-Paper Daily, 1.10.2009

*Obama and his team released their economic stimulus plan today. From the limited things I've read it sounds like most liberal pundits/bloggers don't think, at $775 billion, it is large enough. Keep in mind that this is just a starting point, now Congress will start crafting the plan. More commentary as this unfolds.

*Obama, continuing his bi-partisan tradition, is honoring John McCain and Colin Powell at an event before inauguration. Though I disagree with McCain on just about everything, some recognition for his campaign opponent sounds good to me.

*Job numbers from last year came out and the United States lost 2,590,000 jobs, or about %1.7 of our total work force. It's the worst loss since 1982.

Colin Powell

This morning on "Meet the Press" Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama.

Some of the key excerpts from his interview:

*He is "troubled" by the direction of the modern Republican Party.
*He began to doubt McCain's judgment he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate because he believe she is ready to be President of the United States, which "is the job of the Vice President."
*He said McCain was "a little unsure of as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having, and almost every day, there was a different approach to the problem, and that concerned me, sensing that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had."

Rush Limbaugh said it was because of race (but he's a bigot, so what should we expect?). Many Republicans said it was politically calculated. But I say screw them. Here is a guy, Colin Powell, who is the foremost expert on military matters in the entire Republican Party. He was viewed as the Republican Party's next Presidential nominee in the late 80's. He gave McCain the maximum donation of $2,300 only one year ago. He was the Secretary of State in a Republican administration and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff... and, today, he endorsed Barack Obama.

The Debates

Thus far I've maintained radio silence on the presidential and vice presidential debates. However, after watching tonight's VP debate I wanted to share one observation that held true about both debates: How many times did Barack Obama and Joe Biden have to correct McCain and Palin's facts? Two dozen? Three dozen? More? The debates were prime time examples of what has become a fundamentally dishonest campaign being run by John McCain. It struck me that after nearly half (maybe more?!?!) of McCain and Palin's statements either Obama or Biden had to say, "Actually, what he/she just said is false and here is why."

After being lied into war in Iraq, lied to about Valerie Plame, lied to about the attorney purge, and lied to about domestic spying, I am ready for truth. Enough is enough.

Lying Update

Even Karl Rove, yes THE Karl Rove who guided Bush into the White House not once but twice (using the sleaziest of tactics), says that McCain is lying.

Lying

What is going on with the McCain/Palin campaign?!?! Since introducing Sarah Palin as his running mate, they can't go a day without lying. Now the media is noticing. Some of the lies:

1. The campaign said Sarah Palin had traveled internationally to Ireland and Iraq. Turns out, however, that she sat in her plane while it refueled in Ireland. Her Iraq trip consisted of her flying into Kuwait and taking a trip to the Iraq border. That's it, no meetings, no tours, nothing. Instead of stating the truth they tried to make it sound like she had extensive foreign travel experience.

2. Sarah Palin stated that she never tried to ban books at the local library while she was mayor. Truth is she asked the librarian three times about the process for banning books. Palin then fired the librarian for not fully supporting her.

3. The McCain campaign keeps repeating the lie that Sarah Palin, as governor of Alaska, did not support the Bridge to Nowhere. In reality she did. McCain is saying Palin never requested federal earmarks. She did that too.

4. McCain is lying about Barack Obama's legislative record.

5. They're even lying about their crowd sizes! Pathetic.

What makes this all the more grating is that McCain is largely basing his campaign on honor and character. It's time we the public call him on this.

I Heart Jon Stewart Part III

I just can't get enough Jon. This from Matt over at My Road Less Traveled:

I think the Obama campaign should hire the Daily Show to do their campaign ads - they seem to be hitting the nail right on the head!

Agreed. People must understand that McCain will say any and everything, even if it completely contradicts what he believed in before, just to get elected.

I Heart Jon Stewart Part II

John brought this to my attention over at Vita Brevis. Apologies for another Jon Stewart clip, but it's brilliant. How can people vote for McCain?!?!? If you are going to vote for McCain and are embarrassed by that decision, just leave your reason why anonymously in comments.

Sarah Palin

Five days ago John McCain chose Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, to be his running mate. Interestingly enough, he made the decision six days ago. Most presidential nominees take lots of time, consider their options, and select their VP candidate with great measure. Not John McCain. Dude follows his gut (sounds like our current president).

Apparently he was going to choose former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge or former Democrat Joe Liebermann... until he got the memo that the crazy right wingers in his party would abandon him if he chose a pro-choice running mate. So what did he do? He chose Sarah Palin, someone he'd met twice and Googled the night before. Rather than making a well thought out decision, McCain made a rash decision based on flawed information. Sound familiar? Do Americans want another person who makes decisions just like Bush?

As a result of not putting Palin through a rigorous vetting process, McCain selected a running mate with a colorful history. Enjoy:

1. She recently hired lawyers (with government money no less) because she is under investigation for corruption. Apparently Palin fired Alaska's chief of police because he wouldn't fire the man her sister was divorcing. Stay classy.
2. As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired lobbyists to secure federal earmarks to the tune of $25 million... the exact earmarks John McCain bashes in his stump speech.
3. Palin is an extremist when it comes to a woman's right to choose, gay rights, and guns. This isn't middle of the road Republican stuff, we're talking waaaaaaaaaaaaay crazy. Examples: She believes abortion is wrong even in cases of rape and incest. Also, in 2000 she supported Pat Buchanan for President (Google him or take my word that he's crazy). Interestingly enough, she supported Buchanan over McCain in that election.
   
4. She was affiliated with the Alaskan Independence Party whose primary goal is to get Alaska to secede from the United States. That doesn't exactly jibe with McCain's campaign slogan of "Country First."
5. She's the anti-environment candidate. She wants to drill offshore, drill in ANWR, drill here, drill there, drill everywhere! She also doesn't believe humans are contributing to climate change. Another one of thoooooose.
   

I'll stop there. Feel free to add more in comments.

What really strikes me is this: McCain had more than a few months to find the single best person in the United States to be "a heartbeat away from the presidency" and he waited until the last minute to choose Sarah Palin. He treated it like a 7th grader would his homework. Plus, assuming he wanted to select a woman, what about Christine Todd Whitman, Susan Collins, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, or Condoleezza Rice, all in possession of vastly more impressive skills.

This selection is weird on so many levels.

McCain+Plagiarism=Not Surprised

Did John McCain really lift text from a Wikipedia entry? It was in high school that I learned plagiarism is unethical. I learned in college (b/c that's when it became popular) that using Wikipedia as a source of information for an essay is unacceptable. Now we have John McCain copying information from Wikipedia to use in a speech as he runs for President of the most powerful country in the world.

I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but it seems like each week McCain outdoes himself on the Ridiculous Scale.

Obama Legitimized

In this year's presidential race we have Barack Obama, someone who is wildly popular with the Democratic base, against John McCain, someone who does little to inspire conservative Republicans and leans hard on his supposed foreign policy know-how. In the last couple months, however, McCain's strongest issue has slowly eroded from beneath him. He's confused Shiites and Sunnis (whoops), said Vladimir Putin is the President of Germany (not President and definitely not Germany), referenced events in long-ago-defunct Czechoslovakia as though it is still a country (it's been a few years buddy), incorrectly identified troop levels in Iraq (by 20,000), and said that Iraq and Pakistan share a border (nope). There's even more stuff he's confused, misunderstood, misstated, etc, etc, etc.

Already McCain is looking shaky (that's the understatement of the day!) on foreign policy. Last week it got worse for McCain. The Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki, endorsed Barack Obama's timetable for withdraw--a removal of troops over a 16 month period--saying that it was right for Iraq.

To make matters worse for McCain, the current administration has begun negotiating with North Korea and is getting positive results, and is doing the same with Iran and Syria. It was Barack Obama who, months ago, said we needed to engage diplomatically with rogue nations. Now we know Obama's view is right.

So, Obama was right by opposing the Iraq War in the first place, was/is right about engaging rogue nations in diplomacy rather than ostracizing them, and has the plan that is being endorsed by the top Iraqi politician. As a reminder, John McCain supported the Iraq War in the first place, endorsed the current administrations views on diplomacy (or lack thereof), and believes we may be in Iraq for up to 100 years. Yeesh.

The Fabulous Life of John McCain

Recently while campaigning in California a local reporter by the name of Wisckol had the opportunity to ask John McCain some questions. Most of it was pretty ho-hum, normal stuff, until this exchange:

WISCKOL: I’d like to ask you a couple questions suggested by voters here. They’re not reporter-type questions.

McCAIN: Sure. It’d be a pleasure.

WISCKOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?

McCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.

To be honest, this doesn't really matter. McCain's right, he does have Secret Service protection and while campaigning it's not far-fetched that he rarely if ever has time to himself to drive around and need gas. Anyhow, as Mr. Benen points out at The Carpetbagger Report, his outrageous policy positions on the Gas Tax Holiday, off-shore drilling, and a battery reward are far more important and deserving of scrutiny.
This exchange does highlight one thing: Barack Obama is not the "elitist" in this presidential campaign (Google "Obama elitist" and you get 1.6 million hits).

Obama, before becoming a politician was a community organizer and a professor. With the exception of his book profits, he is very much of the middle class.

McCain, on the other hand, left his first wife to marry a $100 million dollar woman. They have so many properties, seven to be exact, that they forgot to pay taxes on one of them.

So Obama is a professor and McCain is a multimillionaire who doesn't know the price of a gallon of gas. Chew on that for a second... now that that second is over, enjoy this little video:

John McCain Being Two John McCains

John McCain's habit of taking both sides of an issue will become a prominent campaign theme. John McCain has taken both sides of so many different (and important) issues that no one knows what he really stands for. Here's a clip from The Cafferty File (CNN) reviewing where McCain has consistently been inconsistent:



It mattered to Republicans in 2004 when they loved chanting "Flip Flop" about John Kerry. They ate that shit up. Let's see if the party shows any backbone by turning McCain off as he now flip flops. My guess is that they have no integrity and will continue to support a guy who stands for nothing.

Thanks to the Carpetbagger!

His Strength?

McCain is a joke. Here is a guy who says foreign policy is his biggest strength yet he doesn't know how many troops are involved in the Iraq surge, whether al Qaeda in Iraq is Shia or Sunni, or whether Iran is involved in Iraq. Now, apparently, he doesn't know that Vladamir Putin is from Russia and that he is Prime Minister, not president.



Do we seriously what another Bush-like presidency?

McCain the Copycat

Copycats, are we?

Barack Obama's logo:


John McCain's "new" logo for the "Decision Center" on his website:


Barack Obama's slogan:

"Change We Can Believe In."

John McCain's "new" slogan for the "Decision Center" on his website:

"A Leader We Can Believe In."

Same colors. Same red and white stripes. Same blue background. Same words. Apparently the McCain camp isn't too original, but that's rich. Wow.

What People Pay Attention To

When looking at the two presidential candidates--John McCain and Barack Obama--I see night and day. Coming from the inherent restraints of a two-party system these guys could hardly have more different world views and policy proposals. Considering the mess George Bush and gotten us into and how closely McCain's proposed policies match with Bush's current policies, I simply cannot understand how people can even consider voting for McCain. Do they really want another four years of Bush?!?!

I have enough faith in the electorate that I believe that is not the case. What has happened, is that instead of focusing on their significant policy differences, the mainstream media focuses on lapel pins, gaffes, and preachers. What this does is muddy the many differences between the candidates.

I've been mulling this over in my head for months and came across this blog post over at my favorite blog Political Animal. Below is an excerpt:

Personally, I think being wrong about official US policy towards Iran, and about whether recent history shows that negotiating with them won't work, is more serious than being wrong about precisely which Nazi concentration camp your great-uncle helped liberate. But then, I also think that at a time when we are involved in two wars, our standing in the world is as low as it has been in recent memory, we have jettisoned our commitment to basic human rights and the rule of law, our economy is tanking, our currency seems to be in free-fall, the energy crisis has finally (and predictably) hit home with a vengeance, food and commodity prices are soaring world-wide, our health insurance system could most charitably be described as badly frayed, our infrastructure seems to be crumbling around us, and a whole lot of people are looking at losing their homes -- at a time like this, there are better things to talk about than flag pins, pastors, and the real explanation for Hillary Clinton's RFK moment.

Honestly: if this campaign is decided on those sorts of issues, we deserve what we get. It's just a pity our election will affect so many other people, who don't.

McCain Doesn't Support Troops

On Thursday the Senate passed, with solid bipartisan support, a GI Modernization Bill with 75 votes. The bill updates a variety of benefits to veterans, including education benefits that assures veterans the chance to get a college education without going into debt. Sounds like an appropriate thing to offer veterans after they have put their lives on the line. The legislation sounded appropriate to 75 senators, including Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain he does not support the legislation and didn't even show up to vote, instead electing to stay in California for fundraisers.

McCain argues that added educational benefits will draw veterans out of service at a time when our armed forces are already having a hard time reenlisting soldiers for Iraq and Afghanistan. Sounds like a catchy argument, unfortunately it's not based in fact. A Congressional Budget Office study shows that the improved educational benefits will increase recruitment at levels that will more than offset the loss of soldiers due reenlistment losses.

Apparently McCain, the self-promoted champion of soldiers, believes it's better to trap soldiers into service because they have no where to go other than to continue fighting. Barack Obama and 74 other senators, however, believe a better way to support the soldiers is to pay for their college education when they have finished their terms of service and to recruit more and better soldiers by offering improved education funding.

McCain talks one way but doesn't back it up with his vote. Here's yet another reason I support Obama.

John McCain Event

A couple days ago when I was at Wake Forest University I attended a McCain rally where he talked about his view of the modern judicial system and what he would do as president to change things. It was pretty standard, boilerplate Republican talking points: judicial activism is rampant, judges are out of control and legislate from the bench, there is no accountability for judges, Democrats are obstructionists especially when it comes to judicial appointments. Yawn, I've heard all that BS before.

This was the first time I've seen him in person and you know what my takeaway was? He doesn't bend his arms. Shaking hands, giving awkward hugs, motioning during speeches, he does it all with straight arms. He looks like a living cartoon.

Jessica, who I'm staying with at Elon, just chimed in, "I'm more afraid of those people who can't extend their arms."

Touche.

UPDATE: Apparently he doesn't have full range of motion in his arms as a result of the torture he received during the Vietnam War. That means the observation is valid (it really was distracting) but the "cartoon" comment was inappropriate. My apologies.

That said, I'm bracing myself for Republicans to say "Vote for John McCain because he's the 'real' patriot because he was tortured in Vietnam." Mark my words. This is a laughable. His torture has nothing to do with policy. If anything, it should make him even more adamantly against torture, but as his actions have shown, he compromised his anti-torture values and voted against legislation banning torture.

McCain Drops a Bomb (No, not on Iran... yet)

For the five years since the invasion and occupation of Iraq there have been millions of people arguing the war was for oil. Each and every time these people were dismissed by Republicans as being Quacks, Communists, Socialists, Stupid, Disingenuous, Pussies, Etc. Republicans said it was about terrorism and 'Merican freedom.

Then, a couple days ago, John McCain said this.

Let's break it down:

A: McCain's soon-to-be-released energy policy will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Leads to B: This will prevent us from having to send our troops into war in the Middle East.

So we did go to war for oil afterall. Wow.

The people making this argument must feel soooooo vindicated.

McCain

We're not to the general election yet, but this can't go unnoticed. Senator McCain has clearly staked his presidential run foreign policy and his experience in the military. It must be troubling for his supporters that he can't even get some of the basics right about the Middle East and the military.

• McCain has been confused on numerous occasions whether al Qaeda in Iraq is Sunni of Shi'a
• McCain has been unsure whether or not Iran is aiding al Qaeda in Iraq
• McCain had a hard time understanding what was going down in Basra a couple weeks ago
• And now McCain's showing an ignorance of who makes military decisions. He wants General Petraeus to decide if we should move troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to pursue Osama bin Laden. Just last week General Petraeus said making those types of decisions are not part of his responsibility.

I wouldn't expect some random, everyday American to know these details, but this is coming from a guy who has centered his presidential campaign around military issues. He's showing a pattern of ignorance about some of the most basic questions that will be facing our next president. Combine this with the "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Iran" song and his stated willingness to stay in Iraq for a century, and this guy is coloring himself as crazy.

Either McCain is misspeaking a lot or he's plain wrong about a lot of things. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of a President who can't speak (although the laugh track made me lol) and we surely can't afford another one that is wrong all the time.