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.

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.

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

This reminds me of the piece on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, in which Seth Meyers reported that Hillary compared herself to Rocky Balboa, who was “a washed up fighter ultimately beaten by the charismatic black guy. “peace, mjh

The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP

Hillary Clinton enthusiastically picked a filly named Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby and compared herself to the horse. Eight Belles finished second. The winner was the favorite, Big Brown.

Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line, and was euthanized shortly thereafter.

The Page – by Mark Halperin – TIME

PS: The slaughter of Eight Belles was tragic, especially so soon after Barbaro. This is a vicious “sport” akin to boxing or ultimate cage fighting. Sickening.

It’s too bad Huckabee is *dangerously* religious. peace, mjh

Huckabee says Obama’s former pastor needs him to lose – International Herald Tribune

“His (Obama’s) campaign is not being derailed by his race, it’s being derailed by a person who doesn’t want him to prove that we have made great advances in this country,” Huckabee told reporters.

Wright has claimed AIDS was created by the U.S. government to kill “people of color” and that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were spurred by the United State’s “terrorism” against minorities at home and abroad.

“Jeremiah Wright needs for Obama to lose so he can justify his anger, his hostile bitterness against the United States of America,” Huckabee said. [mjh: Therefore, Vote for Obama!]

Huckabee on Obama, Wright: ‘Cut some slack to people who grew up on the back of the bus’ | Political Insider

“As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say ‘That’s a terrible statement’ — I grew up in a very segregated South.

“And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m going to be probably the only conservative in America who’s going to say something like this, but I’m just telling you — we’ve got to cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie, you have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant, you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus.

“And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment, and you have to just say, ‘I probably would, too.’”

Contradicting His Hero Ben Franklin, Gingrich Says Americans ‘Will Give Up All Their Liberties’ For Safety»

Yesterday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich visited Drew University in New Jersey, where he took questions from 20 political science majors there. When one asked him how the government could justify stripping rights from Americans in such pieces of legislation as the Patriot Act, Gingrich said that the government has a “right to defend society,” and when under threat, “people will give up all their liberties“:

“If there’s a threat, you have a right to defend society,” Gingrich said. “People will give up all their liberties to avoid that level of threat.“

Gingrich is directly contradicted by Benjamin Franklin, who rejected the notion that one should give up one’s liberties out of fear:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

The word “elitist” has always seemed rather elitist to me. I mean, do “regular people” (the salt of the Earth; das Volk; mi gente) really use the word “elitist”? Does elitism come up regularly in _____ [insert situation that to you best represents the noblest context of “regular people” — is it a bowling alley, a barbershop, a union hall, a foxhole?].

For nearly eight years, America has suffered mightily under the clumsy thumb of Duhbya, born on third base with a silver spoon in his mouth, a spoiled rich kid who caught every break every step of the way. Duhbya is an elitist masquerading as Joe Sixpack, a guy rich enough to have a ranch in the desert on which all he does is clear brush and entertain Saudi royalty.

Every time a brouhaha arises in the next 6 months, ask yourself, what are you being distracted from? Recently, Barack Obama said a lot of Americans are pissed off. OK, he said, “bitter.” They’re pissed off at being lied to and used as canon fodder by elitists who run everything in AmeriCo. And rather than rise up in revolution, as Thomas Jefferson hoped we would, the pissed-off self-medicate with all the opiates of the people. If there is anyone who should be grateful for that fact, it is the Republican Party, the prime purveyor of said opiates.

But, it appears that if you actually do disdain “ordinary people,” you may have good reason for that. If The People let the two richest, most privileged (oldest and whitest) candidates convince them that the poorest, least privileged candidate is “out of touch,” then, once again, The People get what they deserve.

Anyone who votes for John McCain is voting for George Duhbya Bush. It’s that simple. And Hilary Clinton has proved herself to be McCain’s doppleganger in terms of shape-shifting to mesh with the next group of voters. McCain and Clinton are rich. They are elite. They are more of the same.

Is this election another bout of smoke and mirrors? Smash the status quo. Make *real* change.