Monday, October 13, 2008

T-minus 21 days

I don’t know if I mentioned it to everyone, but through my campaign office, I was afforded the opportunity to staff one of the senators that was in town as a surrogate for the Obama campaign at the debate. I got to be at and inside the debate site. I had my own credentials. I saw the SPIN ROOM as talked about in that famous Jon Stewart Crossfire takedown.



Yeah, I was there. I stood mere feet from senior Obama staff and senators and governors. In a word it was awesome. In several words it was awesome and crazy, hectic and stressful, fantastic and even more fantastic.

I got my picture taken behind one of the podiums after everyone had left. (I’ll post as soon as the woman who took the pic, emails it to me.) I got to frolick with the media in the AB hospitality tent (no thank you, pizza – I’ll have steak with the media). I saw Katie Couric get her picture taken from behind the podium. I saw what it was like to be behind the polished and efficient exterior. I have to tell you, behind that glossy surface, is a wild wild ride – and the Obama campaign is the most organized campaign EVER.

Did I mention not getting my credentials until 30 minutes before I was supposed to meet up with me Senator. Yep. The Secret Service was a little slow on getting the volunteers their passes, along with 80 other Obama people, including senior staff… I smell a rat! Though, the agent that was guarding our door was very nice. I blame the credentials problem on Fox News. Why? Because I can.

And watching the debate with a bunch of hardcore committed Democratic volunteers was great fun. Every time Palin winked there were loud groans, and cheers every time Biden slammed a point home. I don’t know what the point in having an audience is, if they cannot show any reaction to the candidates.

Speaking of debates, bring on the last debate – Obama is more than ready. Obama projected to win with 351 electoral votes. Fivethirtyeight projects that he will win nearly 94% of the time.

For an excellent discussion of the traditional media’s need for a close electoral contest, please see this Americablog post . The Washington Post is using some really wacky and intellectually dishonest numbers in their electoral map. To summarize, while Pollster show 60 Toss up electoral votes, WashPo claims 173. Basically, every McCain lead makes the state “Lean Republican,” and Obama leads of between 7.3%-13.8% are marked as “Battleground.” Really, go read the post.

Then take a look at NPR’s map, and NYT’s map, and tell me why MO is not marked as a battleground state when the Pollster average is 49-46? And bear in mind Obama’s ground game. He OWNS the ground war.

Regardless, Obama does not need to win MO, he’s winning all of the Kerry states and has leads 4.2%- 7.4% in five more state (OH, CO, NM, FL, IA) for a total of 320 electoral votes. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t work out butts off for him here in Missouri. I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history.

Crazy/Dangerous/RADICAL Republicans
Why are conservatives so rabidly, certifiably crazy? Why are they always violent? You don’t see liberals shooting up a Unitarian church, or bombing a women’s clinic. You don’t see liberals denying commuters parking on their lot because they sport an Obama bumper sticker. You don’t see angry Obama supporters ramming shopping carts and McCain supporters. insert You don’t see the democratic candidate inciting violence at their campaign rallies. You don’t hear liberals calling McCain/Palin a “terrorist” or saying “off with his head” or “kill him.” You just don’t see it.

And you don’t see such blind hate in liberals, watch these two videos of McCain supporters. Pay special attention to the “joke” about rape victims paying for their own rape kits under Palin.





And you have to ask yourself, what is wrong with these people? How can they be so blind to the truth? And why are they so angry, so violent?

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now)

Once again, Republicans are hating on community organizers for no apparent reason. Here’s the run down on ACORN (like Maxine Waters said on Real Time, if don’t know what it stands for, you don’t get to talk about it.) ACORN organizes and advocates on behalf of minorities and low income people. In this election season, this has meant they are registering these traditionally underperforming (turnout-wise) groups to vote. There have been a small number of registrations that have been suspect.

By law ACORN must turn in ALL registrations, but they can flag the ones that they find suspicious, which is what they have done. And yet they have been raided and demonized for supposedly turning in fraudulent registrations with the intent of fraudulent voting. Which is ridiculous, as they flagged the problem ones in the first place.

Furthermore, voter fraud and voter registration fraud are two entirely different animals. And lastly, voter fraud is not near the problem that the Right makes it out to be. The false outrage engendered by the rightwing is a front for more restrictive voter laws that make it difficult for minorities and the impoverished to vote. And to what end? These groups overwhelmingly vote Democratic tickets. That’s the ACORN deal, so don’t be fooled.

Oh, and via Americablog, here’s a picture of John McCain with ACORN.


Troopergate
Here’s a mini refresher for you. While Palin was governor of AK, her sister went through a nasty divorce with her husband who happened to be an Alaskan State Trooper. Palin and her husband then embarked on a campaign to have the husband fired. Thwarted by the Public Safety Commissioner who refused to fire him, Palin fired the Public Safety Commissioner. She was then investigated by a bi-partisan panel that found her GUILTY of abusing her power as Governor. Let me say it again: Sarah Palin ABUSED her power as Governor of Alaska and VIOLATED the public trust. She’s quite a maverick, oh wait, nope. She’s exactly like every other political hack in the Bush Administration. That’s not change we can believe in.

Meanwhile, although the headlines screamed “Abuse of Power” when the story broke, there have been no calls for her to step down, step back, or step away. Now just imagine if it had been the Democrat who had lied to investigators, the press, the public and been found GUILTY of abuse of power. OH WAIT RIGHT, they impeached the last Democrat that lied. Silly me, I guess it’s ok if you’re a Republican.

Random Note
I have just run across someone that did not know who Xena was. Really? How can you not know Xena? She’s like a cultural icon. It must be a full moon, all the crazies are coming out.

(It must be a slow work day, because I’m feeling prettywordy.)

Gun Rights
Just to clear things up, I am pro-gun – the Constitution says we can have them so we can have them. (Note: The amendment reads “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” In my reading, it looks like a regulate militia is integral to the keeping and bearing of arms, however the amendment has not been interpreted this way, so we’ll have to stick to the current interpretation.)

I do, however, think that there can be reasonable restrictions on this right. Just look at Free Speech – you can’t yell “Fire” in a crowded movie theatre, you can’t verbally assault someone, you can’t use obscenities on public radio/TV. Rightly or wrongly, there are laws that restrict your first amendment right. And so goes the second amendment. I find nothing wrong with restricting the sale of automatic weapons. I see nothing wrong with running a background check on potential buyers. And I see nothing wrong with banning the carrying of weapons in certain places – courthouses, school yards, bars, etc.

Now, just imagine a world in which Republicans were for gun regulation (not banning, just regulating) and the Democrats were backed by a huge, wealthy lobby (the NRA) that didn’t want any regulation. Do you think that it’s possible that Republicans would make the argument that just like we have to give up some of our civil liberties in the cause of the War on Terror, we have to give up guns too, or make some concessions, like, oh regulations? Do you think they would make the argument that we shouldn’t let terrorists have easy access to weapons on our own soil? I think they might. Do you think that they would argue that if the Democrats and the NRA was anti-regulation, then they must be unpatriotic, because the want the terrorists to have guns? I think they might. That’s really the end of my point.

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