So the hope and change guy said the word "jobs" 37 times in 34 minutes last night

Susan Page at USA Today got it right:

WASHINGTON – Among the jobs President Obama hopes to save with Thursday night's proposals to a Joint Session of Congress is his own.

(text continues below video).

Page continues:  

There are no guarantees that the $447 billion American Jobs Act will be enacted, or that it would significantly reduce unemployment if it were. But the package of payroll tax relief, extended jobless benefits, and funding to repair schools, fix roads and keep teachers working at the minimum gives Obama a plan to extol — and to batter a "do nothing" Congress with if it fails to act.

He exhorted Congress to "pass this jobs bill" or "pass it right away" 16 separate times. And he said the word "jobs" 37 times in 34 minutes.

Read more:

Latest from Gallup: Hillary Clinton out-polls Obama, Biden, and Gates

Hey, remember when Left-wing Dems joined forces with Karl  Rove in 08 to declare Hillary Clinton too polarizing to be elected president? Well, she won the popular vote in the 08 primary despite the evil alliance between the Obama camp, the DNC, and the liberal media, and just yesterday, a March 30, 2011 Gallup poll ranked her above Obama, Biden, and Defense Secretary Gates.

Gallup’s Lydia Saad reports the following poll results for the woman once labeled as too polarizing:

Clinton enjoys extraordinary popularity among women, and particularly women 50 and older. She also receives support from a solid majority of independents and 40% of Republicans.

Underscoring that views of Clinton and Obama are not one and the same, Clinton is seen in a favorable light by 45% of those who separately say they disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president. Naturally, she is also viewed favorably by 89% of those who approve of Obama's job performance.

Hillary’s Star Quality Shines Attention on State Department

Tom Brune at Newsday.com reports:

"WASHINGTON - On her first day as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday did what she does best: She used her star quality to shine attention on a State Department that felt it had been in the shadows for far too long.

"With a broad smile, Clinton won excited, almost giddy, applause and cheers from hundreds of diplomats, foreign service officers and staff as she worked a rope line in the department's packed main lobby yesterday morning.

"As if to underscore Clinton's role both as the high-profile public face of U.S. diplomacy, and as a member of his team of rivals, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden paid an unusually early visit to Foggy Bottom.

After taking credit for naming Clinton as secretary of state, Obama stepped aside as she introduced George Mitchell newly assigned to the Middle East and Richard Holbrooke to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Brune continues:

"She showed up at 9:15 a.m. and after a short ceremony, went to her office and phoned her counterparts in other countries, including Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. She then took an intelligence briefing and toured the building before holding a closed meeting with Obama, Biden and national security advisers."

Brune concludes:

'"Though it was a day of smiles and camera flashes, the uncertainty and gravity of international affairs weighed heavy. "This is not going to be easy," she said, upon arriving. "I don't want anybody to leave this extraordinarily warm reception thinking, 'Oh, good,' you know, 'this is going to be great!' It's going to be hard."'

It occurs to me this morning that naming Hillary Clinton as secretary of state may turn out to be the smartest decision Obama has made since elected president.

Sarah Palin Hung in Effigy as a Halloween Prank

It’s hard sometimes to continue reading the sexist, misogynist drivel on the Web and hearing it unceasingly from TV pundits as this election year winds down. And I admit it’s getting harder to find the energy to protest. I already felt down this evening after watching smirking talking heads go on about the latest shredding of Sarah Palin.

Later on I came across an item circulating on the Internet showing Gov. Palin hung in effigy. In response to the report in the LA Times, Heidi Li Feldman writes:

“Sarah Palin has been hung in effigy by an alleged adult who thinks that showing the lynching of a woman is excused or warranted by it being Halloween time. Please go here to not only read but watch the coverage of this latest in the barrage of misogyny that continues to go unaddressed by Senator Obama or his surrogates.

“Senator Obama, your silence is dangerous and unforgivable.

“You should be convening a press conference with your top advisers, supporters and surrogates, including John Podesta, Senator Clinton, President Clinton, Senator Biden, Senator Kerry, Governor Rendell, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Colin Powell, William Weld, Susie Buell and anybody else you can get to stand with you, and at this press conference you should not only condemn this depiction of a lynching, you should apologize for your complicity thus far in creating an environment where anybody in his right mind could think that a children's holiday - Halloween - is a good time for depicting the lynching of any woman, let alone a woman running for vice-president of the United States of America. You owe it to every woman in America and to every man who cares about any woman to make it clear that you realize that this display is horrific but, tragically, not atypical for this election year.

“And if you fail to speak to this event, as you have failed each and every day for months to acknowledge that you have been the beneficiary of misogyny and sexism and as you have failed each and every day to even acknowledge the rampancy of these ills in our body politic, the advisers, supporters and surrogates I have named - and those who I have not - should rescind their support of your candidacy and refuse to continue to aid your election and announce that they will not accept a position in the administration of a President who does not speak out against the virulent and pervasive hatred of women that has arisen anew in a year when two women have stood a serious chance of serving as President or Vice-President of our country.”

Media Coverage of the Presidential Race: Veteran Journalist Ashamed of his Profession

Michael S. Malone’s column at ABC News on the “Media’s Presidential Bias and Decline” in which he details the media’s irresponsible, if not unethical, coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign comes as no surprise to those who supported Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary. Some of us continue to feel so stunned by the blatant sexist abuse the media heaped on our candidate, including its demand for her to drop out while the race was still tight, that we probably won’t bother to vote on Nov. 4.

Malone, updates us on media bias increasingly evident in the general election, especially its pathological assault on Sarah Palin, surpassing even what Clinton and her supporters underwent, and he asks why there has been no equivalent hardball coverage of the Obama camp.

Malone writes:

“The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game -- with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates.

“The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

“But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was "a writer," because I couldn't bring myself to admit to a stranger that I'm a journalist.

“You need to understand how painful this is for me. I am one of those people who truly bleeds ink when I'm cut. I am a fourth-generation newspaperman. As family history tells it, my great-grandfather was a newspaper editor in Abilene, Kan., during the last of the cowboy days, then moved to Oregon to help start the Oregon Journal (now the Oregonian).

“My hard-living -- and when I knew her, scary -- grandmother was one of the first women reporters for the Los Angeles Times. And my father, though profoundly dyslexic, followed a long career in intelligence to finish his life (thanks to word processors and spellcheckers) as a very successful freelance writer. I've spent 30 years in every part of journalism, from beat reporter to magazine editor. And my oldest son, following in the family business, so to speak, earned his first national byline before he earned his drivers license.

“So, when I say I'm deeply ashamed right now to be called a "journalist," you can imagine just how deep that cuts into my soul.”

Read more.

A Sober Analysis of the Race: The People Have Not Yet Anointed Obama

If you paid attention to over-heated Left-wing blogs in full sexist mode, along with the piously intoning liberal punditry in the MSM cresting on a wave of misogynous sewage, you’d believe the presidential race ended this week with the banner headlines regarding the RNC’s funding of Sarah Palin’s campaign wardrobe.

According to our all-wise media – both the old and the new – voters should be more concerned about Palin’s clothing allowance than Sen. Biden’s dire warnings about what we can expect within the first six months of an Obama Administration. The gaffe-prone Biden has guaranteed an international crisis deliberately ignited to test the “brilliant” 47-year-old president who seduced the DNC into selecting him as its nominee on the basis of his abilities as a motivational speaker and fundraiser.

In contrast to the above, Adam Nagourney at the NY Times puts the state of the race in perspective with his sober analysis. (For the record, the Times just endorsed Obama for the presidency.)

Nagourney reports:

“Here are what Mr. McCain’s advisers are watching hopefully (and Mr. Obama’s are watching warily) as the contest enters its final days.

Issues

“Two issues have turned up in the final days, courtesy of some inopportune remarks by Mr. Obama and his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware. Both have entered the campaign dialogue, and it is probably a little too early to tell whether they will have the impact that Mr. McCain hopes they will.

“The first was Mr. Obama’s response to the plumber in Ohio who asked about his proposal to increase income tax rates on households making over $250,000 a year, in which Mr. Obama asserted that there was a need to “spread the wealth.” Mr. McCain seized on the response to reprise the he-will-raise-your-taxes attack that has historically had resonance in states like Florida, Iowa and New Hampshire. “We believe we have traction with the tax issue,” said Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain.

“It was no coincidence that Mr. Obama spent about 10 minutes rebutting the notion that he would raise taxes on the middle class at a rally here in Florida on Tuesday. Advisers to Mr. Obama are carefully watching state polling and focus groups in Florida, Ohio and Virginia, where Mr. McCain is waging a vigorous push on this issue.

“The other was Mr. Biden’s prediction that a foreign power would test Mr. Obama with a crisis in the first months of his presidency. That remark goes to what has been the heart of Mr. McCain’s argument about the need for the next president to have experience in “handling high-stakes situations. No one in Mr. Obama’s campaign is disputing the potential damage from Mr. Biden’s remark, but they hope it will be offset by the endorsement of Mr. Obama by Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state, on Sunday.

“Polls

“Pollsters say there has never been a year when polling has been so problematic, given the uncertainty of who is going to vote in what is shaping up as an electorate larger than ever. While most national polls give Mr. Obama a relatively comfortable lead, in many statewide polls, Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain are much more closely matched. Even a small shift in the national number could deliver some of the closer states into the McCain camp, making an Electoral College victory at least possible.

‘“The next 13 days will tell the story,’ said Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, pointing to recent polls showing Mr. McCain gaining in his state. ‘I’m optimistic. I think he’s going to take Florida.’

“The other question is whether there is a hidden resistance among whites to casting a ballot for an African-American. That could potentially be a problem for Mr. Obama in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mr. Obama’s advisers argued that race had already been factored into polls; but it was notable that the Times/CBS News poll found that one-third of voters said they knew someone who would not vote for Mr. Obama because he is black. That is a question formulation pollsters use to try to get at prejudice that a voter might not otherwise own up to.

“Turnout

“Mr. Obama has made major strides in expanding the voter pool, especially among young people and African-Americans; the question is whether first-time voters, especially younger ones, will actually turn out. Consider this: An ABC News/Washington Post poll on Thursday found that first-time voters support Mr. Obama by 73 percent to 26 percent.

“Mr. McCain’s campaign looks to history for evidence of how big a step it is for new voters to go from registering, which can take place at a doorstep, to actually voting. Still, by every indication here in Florida — where there were two-hour lines in the southern part of the state as early voting began this week — the Obama campaign may be delivering on the formidable get-out-the-voter operation it has promised.

“Which is not to say they are not a bit worried.

‘“Complacency is a big concern of ours, and that’s why we’re going to campaign energetically from start to finish here,’ David Axelrod, the chief strategist to Mr. Obama said in an interview. ‘We don’t want anybody to think that this thing is done — it’s not done. One of the things that can undo us is if people believe that.”’

A Feisty Sarah Palin Does What She Needs to Do

You have to admit tonight’s debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was a heck of a lot more interesting than the first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. And it was largely due to the feisty, folksy performance by Sarah Palin; Biden, on the other hand, just couldn’t help talking like a senator who has been around for years and years.

Still it seemed to be a fair fight, well moderated by PBS’ Gwen Ifill, and I’m reluctant to pick a winner. I do agree with several pundits that I’ve checked with this evening that Palin did what she needed to do.

Political Intel at the Boston Globe, said it best: “The Showdown in the Show Me state showed that Sarah Palin may be ready for prime time after all.”

To read Foon Rhee’s complete coverage of the debate go here.

Political Intel also reports the McCain campaign’s statement on the vice presidential debate (evidently they’ve not yet received a statement from the Obama campaign):

"Tonight, Governor Palin proved beyond any doubt that she is ready to lead as Vice President of the United States. She won this debate, putting Joe Biden on defense on energy, foreign policy, taxes and the definition of change. Governor Palin laid bare Barack Obama's record of voting to raise taxes, opposing the surge in Iraq, and proposing to meet unconditionally with the leaders of state sponsors of terror. The differences between the Obama-Biden ticket and the McCain-Palin ticket could not have been clearer. The American people saw stark contrasts in style and worldview. They saw Joe Biden, a Washington insider and a 36-year Senator, and Governor Palin, a Washington outsider and a maverick reformer. Governor Palin was direct, forceful and a breath of fresh air," said Jill Hazelbaker, McCain-Palin 2008 Communications Director.

The McCain campaign has already sent out a fund-raising appeal under Palin's signature that bashes the "liberal media."

"In the weeks since I joined John McCain as his running mate, the Obama-Biden Democrats have used their allies in the liberal media to paint us negatively, all in an attempt to sway undecided voters. Tonight's debate gave me the opportunity to bypass the biased media filter and communicate our shared values of reform directly to the voters," she wrote.

"I know millions were watching as I went toe-to-toe against Senator Biden to explain our plans. Reform Republicans will strengthen the economy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and secure our nation from the threat of Islamic extremism."

Media Assaults Palin While Brushing Aside Biden’s Gaffes

Anyone who pays the least bit of attention to the campaign has to have noticed the double standard applied by the media in its coverage of the two vice presidential candidates, Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden.

Posting at RealClearPolitics, Jack Kelly brings into focus the differences in how the media treats Palin and Biden, and he also points out how the importance of experience is dismissed when speaking of Obama, but held up as a major shortcoming when speaking of Palin.

Kelly starts out with a few of Biden’s recent gaffes:

One wonders how Sen. Joe Biden can talk so much with his foot in his mouth.

‘‘‘We're not supporting clean coal,’ the Democratic vice presidential candidate said while campaigning in Ohio last week. ‘No coal plants here in America.’

“Coal mining is an important industry in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, all tightly contested states in this election, so Sen. Biden's remarks were impolitic. Especially so since Sen. Obama supports clean coal technologies.

“‘Obama's Department of Energy will enter into public-private partnerships to develop five 'first of a kind' commercial scale coal-fired plants with clean carbon capture and sequestration technology,’ the Obama-Biden campaign Web site says.

“Sen. Obama's efforts Tuesday to depict Sen. John McCain as too quick to oppose a federal bailout of insurer AIG were undermined when he was reminded by NBC's Matt Lauer that Sen. Biden had said the same thing on the same day.

“‘I thought it was terrible,’ Sen. Biden told CBS news anchor Katie Couric in an interview broadcast Monday. ‘If I had anything to do with it, we never would have done it.’

“Sen. Biden was referring to an Obama ad that mocked Sen. McCain as an out of touch old fogy because he doesn't use a computer.

“The ad was terrible. (Sen. McCain doesn't use a computer because his war injuries prevent him from typing on a keyboard). And it testifies to Sen. Biden's basic decency that he thought so. But there are some opinions you just don't voice.

‘“In the same interview, Sen. Biden told Ms. Couric: ‘When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.’

“Franklin Roosevelt didn't become president until three years after the stock market crashed in 1929. Television didn't go into widespread commercial use until years after FDR died in 1945.

‘“Sen. Biden has said something foolish or indiscreet so often the Republican National Committee has started a ‘Biden Gaffe Clock’ to chronicle them all. Can you imagine the media frenzy if it were Sarah Palin who was saying these things?

“Sen. Biden wasn't chosen to provide comic relief. Sen. Obama thought his 35 years in the Senate, most of it on the Foreign Relations Committee, of which he is now chairman, would give the ticket foreign policy credentials Sen. Obama himself lacks.

“The most hypocritical of the legion of double standards employed by the news media in this campaign is that a paucity of experience in foreign policy is considered disqualifying in the Republican candidate for vice president, but inconsequential in the Democratic candidate for president.”

Read more.

McCain and Obama Prepare for First Debate; Biden and Palin on Their Own

The first presidential debate between Obama and McCain is scheduled for this Friday night, Sept. 26, in Oxford, Miss. According to the Caucus (NY Times):

“Both campaigns know the debate could be a pivotal moment in the race for the White House. The 90-minute event, scheduled for 9 p.m. Friday at the University of Mississippi, will discuss foreign policy and national security. Given the interest in the race so far, viewership is expected to be high.”

While McCain and Obama continue their usual campaign activities in addition to preparing for the debate, the Caucus reports the VP candidates will keep to their own schedules:

“Ms. Palin is scheduled to make her first visit to New York since she became Mr. McCain’s running mate. In addition to meeting with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan on Tuesday, Ms. Palin plans to meet with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia.

“Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. Obama’s running mate, will be in Baltimore on Monday, Washington on Tuesday and then Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.”

Here Come the Debates: Obama vs. McCain; Palin vs. Biden

The AP’s Charles Babington sizes up the coming debates between Obama and McCain and Palin and Biden and opines the pressure is greater on Obama. Most of the world knows by now that Obama doesn’t perform well away from his teleprompter. Hillary Clinton ran circles around him during their several debates, and it wasn’t just style: she was by far the more knowledgeable and all around better-qualified candidate.

Babington writes:

“WASHINGTON (AP) — For Democrat Barack Obama, the three presidential debates that begin Friday are a chance to halt John McCain's momentum, re-establish his image as a refreshing political force and make his case against a third straight Republican presidential term.

“For McCain, they provide an opportunity to reinforce voters' doubts about Obama's experience and readiness, and to demonstrate that he's still on top of his game at age 72.

“With polls showing the race tight, and the debates expected to draw millions of TV viewers, they could tip the balance on Nov. 4.

“The pressure probably is greater on Obama, who built his meteoric career largely on charisma and a gift for words.”

- Um, tell that to the Democratic party elite, Mr. Babington; they are the folks who selected Obama while shoving Clinton out of the race.

Babington cites political scientist Bruce Cain in pointing out the different focus in the debates for the two presidential candidates:

‘“The debates are particularly important for Obama,’ said political scientist Bruce Cain, director of the Washington program for the University of California at Berkeley. Obama's candidacy relies heavily on his promise to break from President Bush's domestic and foreign policies, he said. Such topics are conducive to a debate's thrust-and-parry format, he said, and Obama must capitalize.

‘“He needs to really identify how he's different on the economy from both the current administration and McCain,’ Cain said.

“Obama has emphasized that message for months. But a debate's intimate setting may give it more resonance than the big-stadium speeches many voters associate with Obama.

“McCain's candidacy, Cain said, rests more on his image as a corruption fighter and war hero who survived a Vietnamese prison camp. Those qualities are certain to come out during the debates, but they could lack the specificity or immediacy that voters want, he said.”

Babington speculates as well about the vice-presidential debate pitting Sarah Palin against Joe Biden:

“The Oct. 2 vice presidential debate between Palin, Alaska's governor for two years, and Biden, Delaware's senator for 36 years, may draw nearly as much attention as the three McCain-Obama forums.

“No one expects Palin to match Biden's knowledge of federal matters, particularly his specialty of foreign policy. But Biden, whose verbosity sometimes gets him in trouble, will have to avoid any hint of patronizing Palin.

‘“Biden is going to have the toughest time,’ Baker said. He sometimes ‘lays down a smoke screen of rhetoric’ sprinkled with senatorial jargon, Baker said, which could give Palin a chance to appeal to voters with a straightforward, anti-Washington message.”’

Read Babington’s article in its entirety here.

Hillary Clinton – Not Barack Obama – Transcends the Old Politics

Newsday’s Tom Brune reports recent punches and counter-punches between McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden tickets, while get this: Hillary Clinton – not Barack Obama – demonstrates superior judgment by transcending the old politics of both parties out on the campaign trail.

Brune writes:

“COLORADO SPRINGS - Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin yesterday challenged the reform credentials of her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, contrasting his many years and many friends in Washington with her reputation as a reformist outsider.

“Yet as the McCain campaign attempted on its post-convention swing West to wrest the issue of "change" away from the Democrats, Barack Obama for the first time yesterday took a shot at Palin, scoffing at her boast that she's an anti-earmark "champion."

‘“Obama's former Democratic primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton once again brushed aside questions about Palin yesterday as she marched with labor and stumped for Democrats in Manhattan and Staten Island. ‘This election is about issues,’ she said.”’

Read more:

McCain-Palin vs. Obama-Biden: Redrawing the Battlegrounds

New York Times staff writers Patrick Healy and Michael Cooper offer a thorough report of how the rival tickets in the 2008 presidential election are redrawing battlegrounds for the event-crowded weeks in the run up to Nov. 4.

Healy and Cooper write:

“Fresh from the Republican convention, Senator John McCain’s campaign sees evidence that his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate is energizing conservatives in the battleground of Ohio while improving its chances in Pennsylvania and several Western states that Senator Barack Obama has been counting on.

“Mr. Obama’s campaign intends to focus heavily on the economy, especially in light of the mounting job losses, and to keep up the effort to tie the McCain-Palin ticket to the policies of President Bush. It is banking on holding all the states Senator John Kerry won in 2004 and picking up the additional electoral votes it needs by flipping some combination of Ohio, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa and Virginia into the Democratic column.”

Read more:

Thanks to Gustav, Presidential Campaign Frozen in Place

It’s Labor Day and very little is being said on the morning TV shows or on Internet news outlets about this end of summer holiday established to celebrate and honor American workers. This time last year I posted A Labor Day Salute to Diversity here at Katalusis and in a presidential campaign that now features an African-American nominee for the presidency on the Democratic side and a woman nominee for the vice-presidency on the Republican side, words written in Sept. 2007 remain appropriate.

Which reminds me, in early Sept. 2007, the Democratic primary was just getting warmed up and of the six candidates in the running at the time, one was female, Sen. Hillary Clinton; another was African-American, Sen. Barack Obama; and a third was Hispanic, Gov. Bill Richardson.

On the first day of Sept. 2008, the Democratic convention closed a few days ago, and the Republican convention had been scheduled to start today. As reported in the Washington Post, thanks to Hurricane Gustav, the presidential campaign is frozen in place. Staff writer Dan Balz begins:

“ST. PAUL, Minn., Aug. 31 -- Three years after it battered New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina upended this convention city Sunday.

“For John McCain, struggling to separate himself from the worst of President Bush's record and to get out from under the weight of his unpopular party, this week was supposed to be about emerging as his own candidate. His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate energized the Republican Party's conservative base and the candidate himself, setting up a convention week designed to discredit Democratic nominee Barack Obama and boost McCain as an independent-minded reformer ready to shake up Washington.

‘“Now a storm called Gustav threatens to remind voters of perhaps the signal event that helped turn them against the GOP -- the Bush administration's botched response to the devastating 2005 storm. What neither McCain nor the party can tolerate now is anything that smacks of insensitivity or incompetence in the face of another potential natural disaster. As he told NBC anchor Brian Williams on Sunday, the opening of the convention ‘has got to be Americans helping Americans. America first.’”

Balz also notes:

“Gustav will disrupt the Democrats as well. Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), will be forced to adjust their own campaign plans to account for the storm. McCain has moved quicker on that front, but the Democrats will certainly adapt.

“For now, the presidential campaign will be frozen in place until Gustav has played itself out. Whom that helps can't be foretold. McCain's pick of Palin shifted focus from Obama to the GOP, but Gustav has robbed McCain of the limelight. Americans are now riveted on the storm in the Gulf Coast rather than the convention center here in St. Paul. As Tom Rath, a veteran Republican strategist from New Hampshire, put it: ‘A sure, sensitive and effective response is more important than staging or rhetoric.’”

To read the Dan Balz article in its entirety, go here.

Zogby Poll: Sarah Palin May Stunt Obama’s Post-Convention Bounce

With only a couple of months to go before the big day on Nov. 4, the presidential race could be a dead heat until the final weekend. Zogby Interactive flash poll shows that “Republican John McCain's surprise announcement Friday of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate - some 16 hours after Democrat Barack Obama's historic speech accepting his party’s presidential nomination - has possibly stunted any Obama convention bump.”

“The latest nationwide survey, begun Friday afternoon after the McCain announcement of Palin as running mate and completed mid-afternoon today, shows McCain/Palin at 47%, compared to 45% support for Obama/Biden.

‘“After the McCain ‘Veep’ announcement on Friday, Palin was almost immediately hailed as a strong conservative, and those voters have rallied to the GOP ticket, the survey shows. Republicans gather in St. Paul, Minnesota this week to officially nominate McCain and Palin as their presidential ticket.

“Overall, 52% said the selection of Palin as the GOP vice presidential nominee helps the Republican ticket, compared to 29% who said it hurt. Another 10% said it made no difference, while 10% were unsure. Among independent voters, 52% said it helps, while 26% said it would hurt. Among women, 48% said it would help, while 29% said it would hurt the GOP ticket. Among Republicans, the choice was a big hit - as 87% said it would help, and just 3% said it would hurt.”


Read more.

Gaffes from Springfield: “Next President, Joe Biden” and “Next President Barack America”

Here’s an excerpt from the Caucus (NY Times) following the Obama-Biden event in Springfield. Kate Seelye writes:

3:45 p.m. Gaffe Riot: Our colleague John M. Broder sends this dispatch from Springfield: Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the prospect of sharing a stage with the voluble Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., but the normally silver-tongued Senator Barack Obama fumbled his introduction of his new running mate.

As he wrapped up his podium-pounding peroration, Mr. Obama turned and said, “So let me introduce to you, the next president, the next vice president of the United States of America - Joe Biden.”

Mr. Biden returned the favor near the end of his own remarks. He paid tribute to “the next president of the United States - Barack America!”
The crowd stepped in to help him out, chanting “O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!” Mr. Biden spoke on undaunted.

No Lincolnesque Moments in Springfield from the Obama-Biden Team

photo credits: artfiles.art.com

The two men onstage in Springfield, Ill., raised their voices today in praise of each other’s roots, values, and accomplishments while promising that together they would undo the damage done by eight years of Bush and McCain. In sum, the Obama-Biden team promised the electorate they would go forth and mend terribly broken Washington and not only change the direction of America, but the rest of the world as well.

The Obama team, masters of stagecraft from Berlin to Springfield, Ill., chose for obvious reasons the Land of Lincoln for the One to announce his candidacy 19 months ago. The campaign then cunningly scheduled today’s event at the same site for Obama to introduce Joe Biden as his folksy, given to colloquialisms, running mate.

Biden went so far as to begin and close his talk with mention of Lincoln.

You may have missed it during the primary, but when anyone dared to raise the issue of Obama’s lack of experience, his backers often compared his background to that of Abraham Lincoln. In other words, we were asked to accept on faith that as our next president, Obama would rise to the stature of the nation’s 16th president.

The other illogical argument in defense of Obama’s lack of qualifications for the top job in the country was to point out that many experienced people in the Bush Administration hadn’t done so well. As if to say that because some experienced people hadn’t lived up to expectations, an inexperienced person could be counted on to excel.

No one has been turned off by eight years of the Bush Administration more than I, and I tuned in to today’s event sincerely wanting to be inspired and filled with hope for change I could believe in. When the two speeches were over and the wives had joined their men onstage, I listened to the CNN crew’s mindless chatter for a few minutes before hitting the off button on my remote.

After all the calculated suspense for Obama’s long-awaited VP announcement, the big event in Springfield amounted to a couple of boring guys exchanging expressions of adulation for one another. If the spirit of Abraham Lincoln was on that stage, I missed it.

By the way, the Obama team has actually received kudos from the media for once again demonstrating its ability to stay on message and withhold information from the public. As they say, it’s a well oiled, tightly run political machine. Kind of reminds me of the early years of the Bush Administration.

NY Times’ Herbert Highlights Obama’s Lack of Fire, Passion, and Toughness

Bob Herbert at the New York Times this morning actually managed to criticize the campaign of his long-favored presidential pick, Barack Obama, without taking a cheap sexist shot at Hillary Clinton in passing; unfortunately, Herbert felt compelled to smear voters with charges of racism early on in his op-ed.

Upset over the One’s tepid campaign since the DNC and its media allies anointed him the party’s presumptive nominee on June 3, Herbert writes:

“Barack Obama was always a long shot to win the White House. It’s no secret that some portion of the electorate will never vote for him because of his color. But he has made the odds even longer by running a campaign that, since the primaries, has seemed directionless, uninspired and addicted to the empty calories of generalities.

“And the candidate himself has seemed flat. No fire. No passion.”

Well, Bob, it could have something to do with the candidate’s choosing to bodysurf in Hawaii all week while Russia attacked Georgia, and McCain took center stage in the presidential race.

Herbert confirms what we already knew:

“The last eight years have been calamitous. We’re struggling with two wars, one of which we never should have started. The economy has tanked big time. The housing market has collapsed and foreclosures have skyrocketed.

“Motorists are reeling from high gasoline prices. The financial-services sector is teetering like a skyscraper in an earthquake. Robust budget surpluses have morphed into deficits stretching to the horizon and beyond. And cash-strapped, debt-ridden working families are viewing the future with high anxiety, if not outright fear.”

Herbert again notes the obvious:

“Mr. Obama likes to say he’s skinny but tough. But with all due respect, he hasn’t yet demonstrated the degree of toughness needed to prevail in a presidential campaign. There is nothing genteel about these contests.”

To read Herbert’s op-ed in its entirety, go here.

Sen. Clinton’s Statement on Obama’s VP pick

Reminding voters of her stature and years of service to her country, Hillary Clinton has released a statement on Obama’s selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate:

"In naming my colleague and friend Senator Joe Biden to be the Vice Presidential nominee, Senator Obama has continued in the best traditions for the Vice Presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant. Senator Biden will be a purposeful and dynamic Vice President who will help Senator Obama both win the Presidency and govern this great country."

As I’ve said on several previous occasions, the vice presidency in an Obama administration would have been a step down for Hillary Clinton. As the more mature, experienced, and knowledgeable member of the executive team, she would have been forced to suffer in silence throughout the next four years while Obama completes his on-the-job training.