Today were told about yet another setup for the media by Senator John McCain's campaign.  TIMES is reporting the following:

"It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign. But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it."

That's just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee are claiming John McCain's campaign did in an ad called "The One" that was recently released online. The Republican nominee's advisers brush off the charges, arguing that the spot was meant to be a "creative" and "humorous" way of poking fun at Obama's popularity by painting him as a self-appointed messiah. But even this innocuous interpretation of the ad — which includes images of Charlton Heston as Moses and culled clips that make Obama sound truly egomaniacal — taps into a conversation that has been gaining urgency on Christian radio, political blogs, and in widely-circulated email messages that accuse Obama of being the Antichrist.

Yesterday I wrote about the so-called 'leaked' memo from the McCain camp:

HuffingtonPost.com is reporting a LEAKED MEMO from McCain's camp saying the following:

    McCain campaign "Economic Communications Plan" that was obtained by the:

Huffington Post, an aide to the Senator lays out several themes, tactics and objectives to shore up the Arizona Republican's standing on the economy and paint Barack Obama as a "job killing machine."

All this report does is give John McCain FREE advertising with talking points of Barack Obama as a JOB KILLING MACHINE!

I can hear the political pundits, CNN and FOX now...Breaking News....McCain's pointing out that Obama is a Job Killing Machine.....!

Thanks HuffingtonPost for helping McCain - and taking the bait.

Well, it appears that TIMES is now swallowing the BAIT put in the water to the media for FREE campaign ads.

Why is it that the media only swallows McCain's camp's talking points?  There have been stories galor out there about McCain but not one do you see printed or reported on TV.

Apparently Obama doesn't have the media in his pocket after all.

The Election 2008 campaign ads are being shown during the Olympics this coming week.

One video degrades a man’s character, a man’s hard fought campaign against all odds and pushes fear of terror and high taxes, the other video pushes the feeling of hope by showing how new jobs can be created and in the process, fix our nation in the very near future.

It depends on your human nature which video grabs your attention; but one would think that most Americans, after 8 long years of death, tragedy, war, lack of jobs, high energy prices and being told to ‘fear’ their neighbor, would finally be ready to look the other direction….toward the future with the audacity of hope.

He’s white, he’s black, he was inexperienced nationally, he’s a relatively unknown politician across America, his father was born Kenya, where he grew up herding goats, his mother grew up in Kansas.  Senator Barack Obama with the ‘audacity of hope’, challenged the great Democratic Party establishment and six of the most experience, powerful and well known politicians in Washington today (Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Hillary Clinton), one of which was a very well known and popular white female New York Senator that also happens to be the wife of the ex-president of United States, Bill Clinton, that left office with a 60% approval rating.

Obama challenged his own party by saying we shouldn’t invade Iraq, he challenged the Senate to set a timeline for withdraw from Iraq, he said he would go after Bin Laden if Pakistan didn’t act (Bush now agrees), he said we should talk to our enemies (Bush is now doing that), he wants out of Iraq in 2010, news reports yesterday say the U.S. and Iraq have now agreed to a withdraw timetable of 2010.

Now Obama is challenging Republican Senator John McCain, who’s had 26 years experience in Washington, who used to be considered a maverick in his own party, a son and grandson of distinguished Navy admirals, a man with a 22 year career in the Navy and a war hero after being a POW.
 
Why you ask, would the media cover such a man?  Why is Barack Obama a ‘celebrity’ of sorts?  Duh!?

Senator John McCain ran for the Republican Party’s nominee for President and lost to George W. Bush back in 2000.  He was the media’s ‘darling’ and ‘celebrity’ back then.  They called his campaign the “straight talk express”, remember?  I don’t recall reading complaints made by columnists about all the attention McCain was getting back then, do you?

With all due respect to Senator John McCain, he’s old news because of his previous run for the office of president and his 26 years in Washington.  Voters know him well.

Comparing the news worthiness’ of Senator Obama to that of Senator McCain is like comparing apples and oranges – they each have their own measure of importance today.

Senator McCain knew what he was up against when he announced his candidacy.

When one candidate draws 120,000 (Berlin) viewers and the other is lucky to draw 1000 – which news would you report?

One thing I’ve heard from people of all political persuasions is -- I don’t like the government or any organizations digging into my privacy.

 

I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of the so-called Privacy Act created by the Bush administration.  All it did was give companies and the government ‘more’ rights to accumulate information.

 

Now when you go to the doctor’s office, you have to sign a privacy form each and every time you visit.  Hospitals can no longer report that you are in the hospital.  In the old days, they would ‘ask’ you if you wanted your name in the paper.  Now that’s not allowed.  In the old days, family could ask questions about their loved ones medical information, not now.  You have to have power of attorney or get explicit permission from the family member which usually only covers a certain amount of days and one specific illness.  It’s ridiculous.

 

Today, the government can spy on your phone records, email, financial transactions and faxes.  Nothing is sacred anymore.

 

They’ve taken away family rights for information and given the government the rights for ‘all’ information; this is backwards folks.

 

While I can’t begin to write this the way it should be reported, I’m sincerely hoping the Barack Obama and his campaign will come up with the proper wording and tell Americans that when ‘he’ is President, the government will have to get permission from the courts before digging into our privacy and he will demand that families be given more information to handle their loved ones affairs when they are sick.

 

. 

HuffingtonPost.com is reporting a LEAKED MEMO from McCain's camp saying the following:

McCain campaign "Economic Communications Plan" that was obtained by the Huffington Post, an aide to the Senator lays out several themes, tactics and objectives to shore up the Arizona Republican's standing on the economy and paint Barack Obama as a "job killing machine."

All this report does is give John McCain FREE advertising with talking points of Barack Obama as a JOB KILLING MACHINE!

I can hear the political pundits, CNN and FOX now...Breaking News....McCain's pointing out that Obama is a Job Killing Machine.....!

Thanks HuffingtonPost for helping McCain - and taking the bait.

Let us not forget Governor Mitt Romney’s words about Senator John McCain while being interviewed by Hannity and Colmes on Fox during the GOP’s presidential primary back in February of 2008:

ROMNEY: Well, I think it's going to change a lot of people's opinion about the Straight-Talk Express, which is what he's been selling for some years that he's a straight-talker, and he tells it like it is. I think people recognize that he'll say anything to get the presidency. It's been something that he's been campaigning for well, probably a decade or more, and it's within his grasp almost. And then all of a sudden this guy Mitt Romney stands up and I'm in his way. And he's going to say whatever he has to, and not just doing something that was inaccurate, but doing it at the last possible minute in a state where there's a big military component, was frankly --

McCain in Ohio townhall just made fun of Congress taking a 5 wk vacation -- out of 26 years in office, if that same amount of vacation has been taken, he's had over 2 and half years of vacation paid for --  JUST DURING SUMMER -- by tax payers.

I was reminded of a Saturday Night Live sketch that Senator John McCain did back in 2002 last night on The Verdict with Dan Abrams.  McCain tried to start a singing career.

He wasn’t bad to be hones; but the one song he partially sang gave me the idea of great campaign ad.

The song was "Memories, light the corners of my mind, Misty water-colored memories, of the way we were." song by Barbara Streisand.

Can’t you just picture an ad using the theme of McCain debating McCain (as Obama stated yesterday) showing the following:

McCain first saying he’s supported President Bush almost 90% of the time then a video showing McCain saying he’s nothing like Bush.

McCain saying on MTP that he voted against the tax cuts, then a video showing where he supports the tax cuts.

McCain saying he’s against Oil drilling, then another showing he’s for drilling

McCain saying he’s against new energy ideas, then another showing he’s for them

Etc….

Then showing the Straight Talk Express bus driving away and in the background McCain is singing…."Memories, light the corners of my mind, Misty water-colored memories, of the way we were."

    * Birth Date: February 26, 1958
    * Birth Place: St. Paul, Minnesota
    * Undergraduate Degree: University of Missouri, 1979
    * Law School Degree: Harvard, 1983
    * Family: Married to Anne Holton; three children - Nat,    Woody, and Annella
    * Religion: Catholic
    * Party: Democrat

During Governor Kaine’s tenure, Virginia has been recognized as the most business-friendly state in America (Forbes.com 2006, 2007 and 2008; CNBC 2007), the top-performing state government in America (Governing Magazine 2008) and the state where “a child is most likely to have a successful life (Education Week 2007).”

In education, Governor Kaine is moving the state’s focus from competence to excellence. He put into law Virginia’s first requirement for all classroom teachers to receive regular and meaningful teacher evaluations.

Governor Kaine has also worked to increase oversight and accountability at the Department of Transportation, and nearly 80% of projects currently come in on time and on budget. Governor Kaine is committed to immediately finding a funding solution that addresses the transportation needs

In the area of health care, Governor Kaine is focused on improving Virginians’ health and creating better access to the health care network. He is working with small businesses to expand their ability to purchase health insurance for their employees and is working to utilize the state’s technology resources to improve the quality of health care and find cost savings for consumers. In 2007, the Governor and legislature expanded care options for children and expectant mothers, boosted wellness support for state employees, and provided new incentives for expanding the state’s health care workforce

Together with these four initiatives, Governor Kaine is committed to improving economic opportunity. Governor Kaine has worked with the legislature to eliminate the estate tax, create Virginia’s first sales tax holiday, take more than 140,000 low-income Virginians off the tax rolls,

Governor Kaine’s career of public service began when he took a year off from law school to volunteer with missionaries in Honduras.  There, he served as the principal of a small Catholic school that taught teenagers basic carpentry and welding skills.

Governor Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, representing people who had been denied housing opportunities because of their race or disability.  He won many precedent-setting cases in this area and was recognized by local, state and national organizations for his fair-housing advocacy. Kaine also taught legal ethics for six years at the University of Richmond Law School.

Governor Kaine entered political life in 1994 and was elected to four terms on the City Council, including two terms as Richmond’s mayor, where he worked to build Richmond’s first new schools in a generation, cut taxes and slash the city’s crime rate.  Richmond’s success in reducing violent crime won national recognition from Presidents Clinton and Bush and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.  

Governor Kaine was elected Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor in 2001. He worked for four years with Governor Mark Warner to reform the state’s budget and invest new resources in education.

Governor Kaine has been elected to become Chairman of the Southern Governors Association in the summer of 2008.

Governor Kaine grew up in Kansas City working in his father’s ironworking shop.  He attended the University of Missouri and Harvard Law School.

Governor Kaine is married to Anne Holton, a former legal aid lawyer and juvenile court judge.  Anne’s father, Linwood Holton, was Governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974, making Anne the only Virginian who has lived in the Governor’s mansion as a child and then as an adult.  Anne works diligently to serve the Commonwealth with a particular focus on the needs of Virginia’s children in foster care

The Kaines have three children – Nat, Woody and Annella – who all attend Richmond Public Schools.  The family is active in their church and spends all the time they can in Virginia’s outdoors.

PROS:
Born in Minnesota a state we need
Raised in Kansas City a state we also need
Went to college in Missouri another state we need
Governor of Virginia another state we need
Experience in leadership as both lieutenant gov and gov
Started from bottom and moved up from city council, Mayor
Traveled abroad to -  Honduras – relates to Obama
Helped those with housing needs, like Obama
Business friendly
Education and accountability

CONS:
No foreign policy exp except as Gov related

Over the past several weeks there has been perhaps no better surrogate for Barack Obama than Senator John Kerry. Aides to the Illinois Democrat admit that they are at once surprised and ecstatic with the prosecutorial zeal that the 2004 Democratic nominee has deployed on behalf of his successor.

In the past week alone, Kerry delivered a major address on counterterrorism in which he systematically ripped apart John McCain's foreign policy depth and understanding. He took to the airwaves to defend Obama against charges of celebrity, before turning in a highly praised performance on Meet the Press against Democrat turned Democratic-thorn Joseph Lieberman. All of which was topped off by Kerry's MC-ing at Obama's birthday party in Boston, where he delivered the most memorable line of the night:

"I don't know if you know this," said the Massachusetts Democrat. "John McCain is looking for someone for vice president who has more economic expertise than he does. So congratulations to all of you, you're on the short list."

A thought just occurred to me.  There was an article today about Barack Obama's VP being from LEFT field -- is there ANY chance in you opinion, that Barack has decided to have Kerry as his VP?  He HAS been vetted and he only lost by a few hundred thousand votes in 2004, he'sa veteran and experienced.  He's also a very good at debates.

Opinions?

Senator Barack Obama has a new ad out attacking Senator John McCain's lack of doing anything about the energy during his 26 years in Washington.

This video is an improvement; but not nearly enough hard hits against John McCain in my opinion, compared to McCain’s attacks on Obama.

However, Barack Obama is standing by his desire to make this campaign about the issues, not personal attacks…unlike Senator McCain.

Have you noticed how McCain’s political attack dogs have been calling Senator Obama a “Nice YOUNG man..but is he ready to lead?”  Well, I wish Senator Obama would send out his attack dogs to talk about John McCain being a “Nice OLD Man” but he is living in the past, we need to move on to the future.

Now that McCain's attack dogs did the AGE CARD first -- it's time for Obama to do the same.  Or at the very least say something like, "I'm not going to attack Senator McCain's age but sometimes Senator McCain seems to be stuck back in the 'good old days' instead of working toward a new America."

 

Will Vice President Cheney be a no-show at the Republican convention in Minnesota?

Republican officials say yes, citing a desire by Sen. John McCain's campaign to turn the page on the Bush-Cheney years. One GOP official told CNN there's a "mutual understanding" between Cheney's office and the McCain camp that he is "unlikely" to attend the convention.

I can't wait to see the Senator Barack Obama ad showing Senator John McCain agreeing with almost everything President Bush (Cheney) has done since taking office during previous interviews and talk show visits, then having the ad showing this report where McCain wants to 'distance' himself from the Bush/Cheney presidency.

What a MAJOR Flip Flop that is!

I see where the GOP has finally used Senator Hillary Clinton's picture and words in their attack ad made against Barack Obama and his energy plan.

Senator Obama, it's time you used Mitt Romney's comments in an ad against Senator John McCain.

He was recorded in Feb 2008 in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox as saying the following:

ROMNEY: Well, I think it's going to change a lot of people's opinion about the Straight-Talk Express, which is what he's been selling for some years that he's a straight-talker, and he tells it like it is. I think people recognize that he'll say anything to get the presidency. It's been something that he's been campaigning for well, probably a decade or more, and it's within his grasp almost. And then all of a sudden this guy Mitt Romney stands up and I'm in his way. And he's going to say whatever he has to, and not just doing something that was inaccurate, but doing it at the last possible minute in a state where there's a big military component, was frankly --

It's time to "play ball".  Barack Obama needs to take a break and soon.  During that break he should be seen at ballgames and sports events.

If there is one thing that makes a man like you, that is seeing you enjoying American's past time.

President Bill Clinton won the fans of basketball by attending those games.

President George W. Bush won the Nascar and baseball fans.

Democrats thought it would hurt George W. Bush in his 2000 campaign against Al Gore, to have that picture of him broadcasted showing Bush sitting in a lounge chair with a beer in his hand (reminding folks he was an ex-alcoholic). 

What it actually did is give men voters reason to say, this is the guy I would most like to sit and have a beer with.

Barack Obama's love for basketball should be made into a political ad.  He should relate the GAME of basketball, with the economy, war and energy problems of America.

Obama should also be seen enjoying the game with the 'guys'.  Possibly the people he's got on his 'short list' for VP or with some retired basketball players that are fans of his.

President Ronald Reagan was partly famous for the movie he played in about the football player George Gipp. 

Reagan's famous words were used during the 1988 GOP convention when he told Vice President George Bush, "George, go out there and win one for the Gipper."

Believe it or not, I'm sure polls later showed that those words helped to gain the attention of voters.

Barack Obama - take a break and go to the game.

"Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are, and doing things as they ought to be done." - Josh Billings

People want to believe everything that sounds good, without looking into the future to see if there will not be problems doing it.

By using common sense, you yourself can make a correct judgment.   

I'm sure you've had this kind of experience. You are sitting in your house during the winter and you are feeling somewhat cold. Later, you do some light housecleaning. Afterwards, the house feels more comfortable. Even though the real temperature has not changed during day, we can have very different ratings of it. What is going on here?

The answer is quite simple. Our judgments of "hot" and "cold" are comparative judgments.

Common sense tells us however, that the temperature in the room hasn’t changed, it’s actually our body’s temp that has changed.

When we have been just sitting around the house and our body temperature is a bit lower, then the room feels colder. We warm up when we do housework and thus the room now feels more comfortable.
Interestingly, people make judgments about persuasive topics in much the same way they make judgments about hot and cold. They will distort incoming information depending upon the "anchor position" they hold on a given issue.

“Common sense” told Senator John McCain not to give tax breaks to the wealthy during war time and a possible recession (his position when President Bush pushed his tax cut bill through Congress); but Senator John McCain’s ‘judgment’ told him that if he wants to get more votes in November, he should support tax cuts for everybody.

Common sense told Senator McCain not to invade Iraq; they weren’t the ones to have attacked the U.S on 9/11.  Senator McCain’s political judgment however, told him that American’s backed the invasion, so he should too.

Common sense told Senator Barack Obama not to invade Iraq since Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attacks against American’s on 9/11.  Senator Obama’s judgment also told him that if we poke a hole into that beehive (Middle East), we’ll never be able to really pull our arm back out.

Senator Barack Obama is able to merge his common sense with his judgments.  Senator John McCain ignores his common sense in favor of his judgment.

Let us not forget Governor Mitt Romney’s words about Senator John McCain while being interviewed by Hannity and Colmes on Fox during the GOP’s presidential primary back in February of 2008:

ROMNEY: Well, I think it's going to change a lot of people's opinion about the Straight-Talk Express, which is what he's been selling for some years that he's a straight-talker, and he tells it like it is. I think people recognize that he'll say anything to get the presidency. It's been something that he's been campaigning for well, probably a decade or more, and it's within his grasp almost. And then all of a sudden this guy Mitt Romney stands up and I'm in his way. And he's going to say whatever he has to, and not just doing something that was inaccurate, but doing it at the last possible minute in a state where there's a big military component, was frankly --

HANNITY: It's like an October surprise where you're off-message. And I thought it was so flagrantly dishonest when you said you would veto it. It became a big decision for me in my decision for this coming Tuesday in New York. Let me ask you this, governor; I understand that Tim Russert on "Meet The Press" offered an opportunity this Sunday for both you and Senator McCain to go head to head in a debate. You've accepted, and is it true that Senator McCain rejected it?

ROMNEY: Yes, it is. And there's actually more to the story because when Senator McCain was on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert the week before, Senator McCain said that he wanted to debate me on the economy and that he'd be willing to debate me on the economy. So, when Tim Russert followed up and said great, senator, we'll do that on my show, I said, I'm happy to debate John McCain on the economy.

Frankly, I listened to his comment at the debate on the economy. You may have heard it. It was a stream of consciousness type of discussion, where he talked about punishing people on Wall Street, and then he mentioned something about a town in Norway. It really was a very unusual answer. I just don't think he has a grounding in how the economy works. Frankly, that was at the heart of not only how Ronald Reagan rebuilt America's economy, but how we won the Cold War. We out-competed the Russians.

Senator Barack Obama will most likely wait to announce his VP choice till he needs to take the media’s attention away from either something bad that’s come out about him or something good has been reported about Senator John McCain.

As he has done in the past, Obama uses his ‘surprises’ when they best suit his needs.  This is exactly how the Rove/Bush campaign and presidency reacted.  It’s a very good political strategy, giving credit to Karl Rove.

It’s frustrating to have to wait and we’ll all get into verbal arguments over when he should announce and when he should not; however, keep in mind that he’s ran a simply brilliant campaign so far.  We (including myself here) should ‘trust’ the man and his campaign managers know what’s best.

Perhaps he’ll wait till one or two days before the convention, giving the media very little time to research and have ‘crap’ to throw at the newly nominated VP, before they instead have to concentrate on the convention itself.  Remember, most voters tune the convention out, claiming it’s boring.  Perhaps this move would bring live back to the Democratic Convention?

Perhaps he’ll wait till the day that HE speaks at the outdoor stadium, having the man/woman herself making their speech before introducing Barack Obama the next President of U.S...  Giving the media even more reason to be at the stadium and breaking the historical maneuver of having the VP speak the night before.  Barack Obama is known for breaking historical markers ya know.

Or, as I said earlier, he could hold back till something bad is happening to get the media’s attention off the bad stuff, or he’ll wait till John McCain is having a ‘great’ day in the news.

Either way, Obama will ‘use’ the opportunity well – I’m sure of it.

 It appears after doing a little research that Senator John McCain played the ‘presumptuousness or ‘arrogant’’ campaign once before during his 2000 campaign up against then Governor George W. Bush.

I found this one paragraph in a USATODAY story that shows that Senator McCain apparently tried to use the same strategy against George W. Bush in 2000 that he is now trying to use against Senator Barack Obama, by making him ‘appear’ presumptuousness or arrogant.

Pew Center polls found that Bush sustained damage during the primaries, both to his image (people were more likely after the contests to consider him arrogant) and to his popularity among "McCain's prime constituencies" - Easterners, older men, white Catholics and independents.

 Here's more...

 

New concerns about Bush's personality are evident in voters' one-word descriptions of the Texas governor. In past months, the most frequently mentioned words were uniformly positive, including good, okay, and alright. Today, good and okay are still mentioned most, but arrogant ranks as a close third. Overall, 31% of Americans now use a negative word to describe Bush, up from 21% in September and just 12% a year ago.

 

Here’s another story about how George W. Bush appeared ‘arrogant’

ORLANDO, Fla. — Since wrapping up the GOP presidential nomination, George W. Bush has been sounding like a sore winner, making acid remarks about Al Gore and dismissing former Republican rival John McCain. Voters are starting to tell pollsters the Texas governor is ``cocky'' and ``arrogant.''

With his Texas swagger and a look that some voters describe as a smirk, the governor's remarks on everything from the election to executions have renewed questions about whether he's ready for his prime-time presidential run.

A new Pew Research Center poll suggests Bush is being hurt by it all.

I don’t have the time or resources to do any deep research, perhaps one of you will.  If it is proven that Senator John McCain used the ‘arrogant’ attacks against George W. Bush in 2000 – it could help Senator Obama’s campaign for that news to be reported.