Transcript of Obama’s Speech in Des Moines, Iowa

The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

Forging a New Future for America – Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

We face an opponent, John McCain, who arrived in Washington nearly three decades ago as a Vietnam War hero, and earned an admirable reputation for straight talk and occasional independence from his party.

But this year’s Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that is the contest John McCain won. The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans that once bothered Senator McCain’s conscience are now his only economic policy. The Bush health care plan that only helps those who are already healthy and wealthy is now John McCain’s answer to the 47 million Americans without insurance and the millions more who can’t pay their medical bills. The Bush Iraq policy that asks everything of our troops and nothing of Iraqi politicians is John McCain’s policy too, and so is the fear of tough and aggressive diplomacy that has left this country more isolated and less secure than at any time in recent history. The lobbyists who ruled George Bush’s Washington are now running John McCain’s campaign, and they actually had the nerve to say that the American people won’t care about this. Talk about out of touch!

I will leave it up to Senator McCain to explain to the American people whether his policies and positions represent long-held convictions or Washington calculations, but the one thing they don’t represent is change.

The REAL John McCain: Less Jobs, More Wars.

This 3+ minute video montage is well worth your time. It’s shocking, even though I was aware of many of these contradictions. As for the blame placed on corporate media, I note that many of those seeming to challenge McCain are in corporate media, whose real failing may be in letting things drop from our attention. peace, mjh

The REAL John McCain: Less Jobs, More Wars.

Turn John McCain’s YouTube Problem into a Nightmare!

The REAL John McCain: Less Jobs, More Wars.

Who Says Elephants Never Forget?

ABQjournal NM: 1st Congressional District Candidates Give Opinions on Iraq War

Joe Carraro, Republican
“We’re in a quagmire, and I really think we needed to have somebody ask the questions before we got in.”

You mean like the millions of Americans who said “NO WAR!” and were willing to take to the streets to make their point? The same people Republicans called traitors and cowards?

ABQjournal NM: 1st Congressional District Candidates Give Opinions on Iraq War

Darren White, Republican
“This is something that I think about every day because of my son (who just completed basic training in the Air National Guard). This thing is a mess. Mistakes have been made, big mistakes, in the execution of the war.”

Darren thinks about the war every day because of his son, not because he wanted to beat-in the heads of protesters before the war began. Yeah, mistakes were made by war-hungry Republicans. Your chance is over, bub.

peace,
mjh

Wars Hard on State Dept., Defense Chief Says : NPR

Let’s just give all the money we have to “Defense” (formerly, the War Department) and let them decide what programs, domestic and foreign, “keep us safe.” It would be efficient.

Duhbya and company have so decimated the system that Defense has to beg for money for State. You can also thank Donni “Big Dick” Rumsfeld and Condi Rice. peace, mjh

Wars Hard on State Dept., Defense Chief Says : NPR

Wars Hard on State Dept., Defense Chief Says

by Michele Kelemen

All Things Considered, May 19, 2008 · Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expressing concern that the State Department has become stretched too thin by the diplomatic demands of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gates is arguing for more resources for Foggy Bottom.

Wars Hard on State Dept., Defense Chief Says : NPR

Which One is the Lesser of Two Evils?

ABQjournal NM: Candidates Clash Over Health Care
By Jeff Jones, Journal Politics Writer

“I’m supportive of our rural health (care)— I’m a product of that. I don’t have any desire to hurt them,” Pearce said. “But what I do desire is to start reining in the people who are literally stealing from the American public.”

ABQjournal NM: Candidates Clash Over Health Care

That’s quite an accusation from Steve Pearce — literal public theft. Who are these thieves? Blackwater, KBR? Are they the doctors Republicans wish to protect from rapacious lawyers? Are they the small business people Republicans claim to revere (while they actually revere only the very biggest corporations)?

This is the fundamental Republican view that infuriates me the most: All taxation is theft. There is no Commonwealth and no common good — every man for himself, every property is private. This extremely destructive view angers me far more than the utter hypocrisy of seeing all public expenditures as theft *except* for the limitless war machine. Pearce would have us look closely at expenditures on public health — I don’t recall him suggesting the same for the billion an hour we piss away in Iraq.

“Here’s one of the differences between Steve and I: I will not vote against the interests of the state of New Mexico to satisfy a narrow ideological agenda,” Wilson said. “He will always vote to supposedly save money, even if it makes no sense— and that’s what he did here.”

She means “me,” not “I.” But, OMG, she really is a liberal! How can any Republican vote for someone with such shifting standards. Flexibility is weakness! Compromise is failure!

peace, mjh

Swing State Project:: NM-Sen: Udall Steamrolls; Wilson and Pearce Neck-and-Neck

By this, Pearce is up over Wilson but Udall is up over each of them. peace, mjh

Swing State Project:: NM-Sen: Udall Steamrolls; Wilson and Pearce Neck-and-Neck

by: James L.

Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:22 PM EDT

SurveyUSA (5/12-14, registered voters, 11/16-18 in parens):

Tom Udall (D): 60 (54)
Steve Pearce (R): 36 (40)
Tom Udall (D): 61 (56)
Heather Wilson (R): 35 (41)
(MoE: ±2.3%)

This race is really starting to look like a lost cause for Republicans.

Here’s the primary head-to-head between Pearce and Wilson:

Steve Pearce (R): 49 (37)
Heather Wilson (R): 46 (56)
(MoE: ±4.8%)

Swing State Project:: NM-Sen: Udall Steamrolls; Wilson and Pearce Neck-and-Neck

[hat tip to R.A.]

The Swamp: McCain paints Obama’s portrait

peace, mjh

The Swamp: McCain paints Obama’s portrait

Defining one’s opponent is a key task of any campaign, and simply put, McCain has had a long head start. As early as Feb. 12–the day McCain and Obama each won primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. — McCain suggested Obama was guilty of hollow promises and a messianic self-image.

“To encourage a country with only rhetoric, rather than sound and proven ideas that trust in the strength and courage of free people, is not a promise of hope,” McCain said, alluding to Obama’s speaking skills and campaign theme. And in another jab he added, “I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need.”

Unlike McCain, Obama has been fighting a two-front war, trying to beat back an onslaught from Clinton while taking opening shots at McCain. Recently Obama has started focusing more squarely on the presumptive Republican nominee, attacking his positions on the war and the economy.

But because of the long, bruising Democratic campaign, McCain has gotten an early jump. Day by day, week by week, McCain has been portraying Obama as inexperienced, self-entitled and effete, a candidate coddled by a loving press corps and lacking the judgment necessary for the highest office in the land.

It’s a line of attack likely to last through the fall election.

“We’ll make the case that Barack Obama is a wonderful new voice selling old, discredited ideas, including the most massive tax increase since Walter Mondale ran for president,” said Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain adviser. “It’s a combination of weakness, not being ready to be president and not being able to deliver on the things he says he will deliver on.”

The Swamp: McCain paints Obama’s portrait