John McCain just walked into the trap.  He's given Obama/Biden the ability to show why Joe Biden was Obama's best choice for VP.

That's right - Joe Biden said Barack Obama wasn't ready to be presiden -yet- back in January. 

Since that time however, Obama has more then proven his ability to "LEAD" and have good "JUDGEMENT". 

Joe Biden has watched and learned as many of us have over these many months.  He's seen first hand how Obama said we would be sorry for invading Iraq, that billions of dollars would be wasted - he was right. 

He's seen how Obama said he would go into Pakistan if he had actionable intelligence of high value targets - he was right, President Bush has sent missiles there several times since Obama's statement. 

Joe's seen Obama say we should be 'talking' to Iran one on one - he was right, President Bush finally agrees. 

Joe's also seen how Obama's pushed for a timetable to withdraw responsibily from Iraq - he was right, now, not only do President Maliki of Iraq and President Bush agree; but Senator John McCain agrees as well (he's calling it 'goals').

Joe's also seen how Barack Obama took on the Democratic Party's establishment and their most valued commodity - the Clintons and won as their Presidential nominee.

Joe Biden respects John McCain - yes that's right.  Joe is an honorable man, always has been.  He respects a man such as John McCain for his years of service in the military and in government. 

That does not mean however, that he agrees with McCain's policies.

I can't wait to hear or see the Obama/Biden rebuttal to McCain's first Ad against them.

We should be hearing anytime now who Barack Obama has picked as his running mate for VP.  Guess what's being talked about on talk shows.  Are they talking about the Democratic convention starting next Monday?  Are they talking about Obama's attacks on John McCain for not knowing how many homes he has?  Are they talking about the type of candidate Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, Wesley Clark  or Governor Kaine is?

NOPE!

Once again they are talking about Hillary Clinton and a story that somebody wrote saying she was never vetted for VP.

Supportors of Obama's (that were supporters of Hillary's during the primary) like Paul Begala is 'upset' about Hillary not being vetted when Obama said she would be.  He claims this news will only feed the Obama haters (Hillary supporters).

Well Mr Begala, if you now support Obama, why in the world are you discussing Hillary Clinton - AGAIN -- during what could be Barack Obama's very first BIG CHOICE story?

Number one, we've not heard the 'facts' about who was vetted and who was not and why not.  To attack Obama at this time is only feeding the Obama haters.

Or...is that your plan?  Get them stirred up for the Convention so they'll cause a disturbance?

We’re hearing all about Russia’s invasion into Georgia and how this act may in fact help Senator John McCain’s campaign by bringing national security to the front lines of the election.

At first glimpse that rings true.  Reminding folks how dangerous our world is has pushed voters toward the Republican Party (President George W. Bush) for the past 8 years now.
 
Republicans, after all, are the only ones that can keep us safe, remember?

Wrong.  Wasn’t it a Republican that held the White House for a full 8 months before we were attacked on 9/11/2001?  Didn’t we also have a Republican leadership in charge in Congress during that year?
 
Are we not in a unnecessary war with the country of Iraq?  Didn’t we invade that sovereign nation when they had nothing what so ever to do with the 9/11 attacks made against us?  Didn’t we go to war in Afghanistan and in less than 2 years claim victory in both Afghanistan and Iraq with the now famous, "Mission Accomplished" sign on the ship?

Did the President once again have to back away from his bullying of North Korea in order to get them to walk away from producing nuclear bombs?  Is that problem solved yet?

Hasn’t Iran been threatening Israel and our soldiers in Iraq for the past few years with making the bomb?  Isn’t Turkey now in a war with the Kurds in Northern Iraq?  Syria is also threatening to cause problems in that area, aren’t they?

Now the man that Bush said he could look into his eyes and see his soul, Prime Minister Putin and his Russian troops, are attacking a friend of ours; Georgia – Russia is now threatening to start another Cold War.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, a nation that has nukes and is full of Islamic extremists and Bin Laden supporters, was recently forced to step down.  President Bush, Senator McCain and yes, even Senator Clinton criticized Senator Barack Obama for saying that if Musharraf had intelligence of high valued targets and Pakistan did not act, that he would.  Obama also pushed for direct talks with Iraq.  This year, Bush has sent missiles in Pakistan and he’s now talking to Iran.

For the last 4 years President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Senator John McCain and the Republican Party have accused Democrats and Senator Barack Obama of practically treason and giving into the enemy by wanting to set a timeline for withdraw from Iraq and thereby force the Iraqi’s to stand up and defend their own nation.
 
Senator John McCain himself said Obama was willing to lose a war in order to win the Presidency, by wanting to surrender (demanding a timeline for withdraw).  They claimed it would bolster the enemy, remember?  They’d just wait till we left to take control of Iraq, they said (which doesn’t say much for the Iraq people and their military forces - I might add).

When McCain first began his campaign, he said we might have to stay in Iraq for 100 years.  Within weeks he changed his tune and now says he wants them out by 2013 if not sooner.

Now today, we hear that Condi Rice signed an agreement for a specific timeline to withdraw from Iraq by 2011.  Just in time for the Election.  Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw is for 16 months from the date he takes office.  That makes the timeline almost exactly like his.  Who’s to say that if we had voted for that timeline two years ago, even a year ago, that the Iraqi government would have finally stood up and took charge allowing our men and women to be home today – or at least out of Iraq?

The man that reportedly sent the white powder (Anthrax) to Congressional members, after 7 years is just now being blamed for that crime – leaving some still doubting he’s the one.

China is now listed as being the leader in the manufacturing industry.  We have mad cow problems, lead in toys problems and we are now in debt up to our eyeballs with China for paying for our war in Iraq.

Osama Bin Laden is still a free man, so is his right hand man.

After 7 years of war, Afghanistan is worse then what it was in the first year of war – requiring more troops that we won’t have until some are removed from Iraq.

Think about it voters.  Do your really feel safer having Republicans in charge?


http://coonsey.wordpress.com/

McCain’s New Argument – I’m a POW

TPM: "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Washington Post.

For those of you who haven't kept track, the McCain campaign just recently cited McCain's POW years in explaining away the Miss Buffalo Chip gaffe, and in dealing with the allegation that he broke the rules and listened in on Barack Obama during the Rick Warren forum.

McCain must have re-watched the CNN special on his life last night. They pointed out a story when McCain ran for Representative and when voters were questioning his not having lived in Arizona very long -- he basically used this same argument.

He said something like, “I've a military brat, the longest I've live anywhere sir, is in a Vietnam prison.”  The crowd CHEERED for him and he ended up winning the seat.

He's trying that tactic again.

Somebody needs to remind people -- that was over 50 years ago.  He's lived in MANY homes since then – so many in fact that he can’t remember how many he currently owns.

18 millions votes.  That's what the Hillary campaign claims Hillary received during the Democratic Primary.

I was just wondering.  Do any of you know how many of those 18 million people were women compared to Obama's women supporters?

I was also wondering if anybody thinks Hillary, if she had been a man running on the same theme as Hillary, the 'female' ran on, would have gotten those same 18 million votes including the majority of women voters?

Would women have voted so overwhelming for her if she had been a man?

I was also wondering if anybody thinks Hillary would have gotten those 18 million votes if she hadn't been the wife of the popular former President, Bill Clinton?

My point, in case you haven't caught on yet is, that if Hillary had simply been another man from the Senate or a Governor, such as Biden, Dodd or Richardson, that just so happens to have ran the same type of campaign as Hillary did -- whether or not she would have gotten even 'close' to that 18 million votes?

Before you jump down my throat and accuse me of being a Hillary hater -- remember the question that Geraldine Ferraro
asked -- whether Barack Obama got where he was in the primary -- simply because he is a black man.  Tit-for-tat!

It just amazes me the articles that are being written these days about Hillary and her campaign and what's happening with 'it' and 'her', just hours before Barack Obama is to officially be nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. 

A historical moment -- and yet the media and Hillary's campaign is still talking about Hillary's 18 million votes and what 'she' will get or do - during the convention. 

These stories always include a caveat of course that Hillary supports Obama 100% now for President and that she wants her supporters to do so too.

If you support somebody 100% -- you or your campaign don't spend half the day talking about 'your' voters and how many votes 'you' got or what the Party or Obama owes 'you'.

The normal thing a candidate does after losing is -- they face facts as to 'why' they might have gotten their votes, they look at the mistakes they might have made, and then they try and get over their loss and move on.

Not the Clintons however -- they have never been 'normal'.

We the voters get your point -- Hillary got 18 million votes, more than any other woman candidate -- but why, that is the real question.  Was it because of 'who' she was or because of her policies and vision for the future?  I think most voters know the answer to that.  Or at least I would hope so.

Besides....Barack Obama won - she didn't.

Will John McCain Lead America into WWIII?

President Ronald Reagan was able to 'take on' the Soviet Union and the Cold War without firing a missile --- will McCain do the same?

It's a well known fact that Senator McCain has thrown some temper tantrums in the Senate over previous years of negotiating. 

What happens if he throws one in the White House while negotiating with North Korea, Iran or Russia?

In October 2006 in an interview with Chris Matthews, McCain said, “I don‘t think we need to think of the draft again because I don‘t think it makes sense in a whole variety of ways.”

June 25, 2008 - Asked about that possibility of being forced to reinstitute the draft by a potential voter in Florida during a telephone "town hall meeting," McCain said: "I don't know what would make a draft happen unless we were in an all-out World War

August 19, 2008 - Yesterday, when a McCain supporter said the following during her question, “If we don’t reenact the draft, I don’t think we’ll have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

Senator John McCain answered: Ma’am, let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said.

Which is it John?  Are you now saying we may need a draft?

We have a war in Iraq, a war escalating in Afghanistan, dangerous nations threatening to build nukes and use them (Iran and North Korea), a country filled with supporters of Osama Bin Laden that has nukes and just had its president impeached (Pakistan), two allies that could be attacked by either Pakistan or Iran (India or Israel) and now Russia is threatening and attacking Georgia - our friend (although at one point Bush could look into Russia’s president Putin’s eyes and see his soul).

Of each of these situations, all McCain can seem to do is ‘threaten to harm those’ he feels are in the wrong.  “We will stop them” or “We will defeat them", he says.

John McCain has chosen to make his campaign about War and Terrorism -- he's decided to make the election about National Security -- Just like his heroes in previous campaigns did -- President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Senator McCain, for the Voters sake, parents and their kids alike, need to know -- exactly what would put you over the finishing line?  What in your view says we're in a WWIII?

Because Sir, if one listens to your rhetoric - it sure sounds like you think we're already there.

All the political pundits and talk shows are going crazy discussing Barack Obama's problem with voters today. 

A new Zogby/Reuters poll is out saying that John McCain is ahead of Obama by 5 points.

I would just like to remind folks that by having the polls showing LOW numbers before the Democratic Convention next week is actually a PLUS later.

Every candidate gets a bump after the convention; but if Obama's polls are even lower before the convention the more BUMP we should see after the convention.

Of course, with the GOP's convention being the following week, that bump may not last long.

I do think however, that once voters hear the DETAILS of Barack Obama's plans and the DETAIL FACTS about John McCain's plans for America - voters will begin to flock to Obama again.

One of the first things Obama needs to do after the convention is to start leaking possibilities for his cabinet and he should make an IN PERSON interviews with Larry King.  For the full hour. 

Ross Perot got famous doing that.  It's like an infomercial - free.

The political pundits are pushing Senator Joe Biden as Obama's nominee choice.  I'm going to go against the grain and out on the limb and say - NO IT'S NOT BIDEN

The media is saying the recent trip to Georgia, requested by President Bush put Biden over the top for Obama.  I don't think so.  In fact, if I were Obama, that trip would have given me second thoughts about picking him as my VP choice.  Why you ask?

As Sherlock Homes would say, 'Elementary, my dear Watson" - Because President Bush asked him to go. 

That is a typical Karl Rove maneuver. 

Put Senator Joe Biden in the limelight.  Convince Senator Obama that Senator Biden is the man he needs on his side at this point.

Why would the GOP do that; with all of Biden's experience, maturity and likability giving Obama's supporters and those 'not sure', a sense of security?

I don't have a clue, except to say they probably have something on Biden that could hurt Obama.  Perhaps they are hoping Biden with his known problem of 'talking too much' at times will ultimately hurt Obama?  Either way, I just don't think Obama will pick Biden.

Don't get me wrong, I think Biden would make an excellent VP and President some day.  I just have a gut feeling that he will instead be a President Obama's Secretary of Defense instead.

I think Governor Bill Richardson will be an excellent choice for Obama to pick as his Secretary of State.

Who does that leave?  Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia and General Wesley Clark.

Obama and Kaine are like brothers in many ways.  They have a lot in common.  Check out Kaine's website.  Governor Kaine could help Senator Obama win Virginia and red state; but could he help anywhere else?  Political experts say he's in the same boat as Obama, no foreign policy experience.

That leaves General Wesley Clark.  Here's his biography:

Born in 1944 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Wesley Clark distinguished himself early as an athlete and a scholar, leading his high school swimming team to a state championship and graduating first in his class from West Point. In 1966, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he earned a Masters Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. 

During thirty-four years of service in the United States Army Wesley K. Clark rose to the rank of four-star general as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. After his retirement in 2000, he became an investment banker, author, commentator, and businessman. In September 2003 he answered the call to stand as a Democratic candidate for President of the United States, where his campaign won the state of Oklahoma and launched him to national prominence before he returned to the private sector in February 2004.

In his final military command, General Clark commanded Operation Allied Force, NATO's first major combat action, which saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and he was responsible for the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.

In previous duty, General Clark was the Commander-in-Chief, US Southern Command, where he was responsible for all US military activities in Latin America and the Caribbean. And from April 1994 through June 1996, he was the Director of Strategic Plans and Policy, J-5, in the Joint Staff, where he helped negotiate the end to the war in Bosnia. His previous assignments include a wide variety of command and staff positions, including Command of the 1st Cavalry Division.

General Clark's awards and honors include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The State Department Distinguished Service Award; the US Department of Defense Distinguished Service Medal;(five awards), The US Army Distinguished Service Medal(two awards), The Silver Star, the Bronze Star (two awards), the Purple Heart, and Honorary Knighthoods from the British and Dutch governments.

General Clark joined UCLA as a senior fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations in UCLA's International Institute in 2006, where he teaches seminars, publishes through the Burkle Center and hosts an annual conference of government, corporate and opinion leaders from around the world on national security.

Take note of where he is from - Illinois and raised in Arkansas (red state)

Take note what State he won in 2003 during the Democratic Primary - Oklahoma (red state)

Take note that he's run a business recently

Take note of his education - Economics

Take note his military and foreign policy experience - over more than 34 years

In addition to - He supported Hillary Clinton which might draw some of her voters.

He voted for George W. Bush in 2000 - Realized later he made a huge mistake

He supports and defends Barack Obama for president.

He ran his own campaign, was a commentator for FOX and NBC.

An experience debater

Last but not least, he's a big advocate of getting out of Iraq.

He supports and defends Barack Obama for president.

Need I say more?

I predict that Wesley Clark will be Senator Barack Obama's choice for his Vice Presidential nominee.

Senator John McCain forgets what he said back in 2000 about the type of campaign a Party should run:

"The political tactics of division and slander are not our values," Mr. McCain said. "They are corrupting influences on religion and politics, and those who practice them in the name of religion or in the name of the Republican Party or in the name of America shame our faith, our party and our country."

"Neither party," Mr. McCain added, "should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance."

At least one moderate Republican, Senator John Warner of Virginia, who is supporting Mr. Bush, was critical of the McCain comments. "I have to tell my old friend," he said in Richmond, "to pull back on his throttle and quit trying to fire heat-seeking missiles up everybody's tailpipe."

This would be a great comeback for Obama to McCain....or something similar.

Is he going to announce his VP there?

Got this from DKOS.

The media is sort of laughing off the idea that McCain might have heard the questions begin asked of Barack Obama during the Saddleback Civil Forum last weekend but if you read the transcript -- McCain knew SOMETHING... Read it here after the bump..

REV. WARREN: I know it is. The courts -- let me ask it this way. Which existing Supreme Court justice would you not have nominated?

SEN. OBAMA: That's a good one. That's a good one. (Laughter.)

I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. (Applause.) I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation, setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretations of a lot of the Constitution. I would not nominate Justice Scalia, although I don't think there's any doubt about his intellectual brilliance, because he and I just disagree. You know, he taught at the University of Chicago, as did I, in the law school.

REV. WARREN: How about John Roberts?

SEN. OBAMA: You know, John Roberts I have to say was a tougher question only because I find him to be a very compelling person, you know, in conversation individually. He's clearly smart, very thoughtful.

I will tell you that how I've seen him operate since he went to the bench confirms the suspicions that I had and the reason that I voted against him.

And I'll give you one very specific instance, and this is not a stump speech. I think one of the --

*******************************************

SEN. MCCAIN: At the moment of conception. (Cheers, applause.) I have a 25-year pro-life record in the Congress, in the Senate. And as president of the United States, I will be a pro-life president and this presidency will have pro-life policies. (Cheers, applause.) That's my commitment. That's my commitment to you.

REV. WARREN: Okay. We don't have to go longer on that one. (Laughter.)

Define marriage.

SEN. MCCAIN: A union -- a union between man and woman, between one man and one woman. That's my definition of marriage. (Applause.)

Are we going to get back to the importance of Supreme Court justices, or should I mention it? (note the GET BACK statement)

REV. WARREN: We will get to that.

SEN. MCCAIN: Okay. All right. (Laughter.) Okay.

REV. WARREN: Man, you're jumping ahead. You know all my questions.

SEN. MCCAIN: No, no, that's -- when we speak of the issue of the rights of the unborn, we need to talk about judges. But anyway, go ahead.

Senator John McCain KNEW at least SOME of the questions being asked or he wouldn't have asked to go BACK to a question he NEVER HAD.

I might also note that the whole questioning seemed to give McCain the ability to push his strong suits (military, experience in gov, correct his moral failures (wife), etc..) -- anybody notice that?

It's being reported that Senator John McCain refuses to run an honorable campaign by allowing the Democratic Party to have their convention week to themselves in exchange for the same curiosity to the Republican Party's convention in September.

Senator McCain is reportedly planning on announcing his VP selection the day after Senator Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Party's nomination on Thursday.  Stealing away any possible attention/bump the Party might get from their convention.

Well, perhaps the Obama campaign should do the same honors to the Republican Party immediately after John McCain's acceptance speech at the end of their convention.

Perhaps the Obama team should leak a few of Obama's nominee plans for his cabinet -- should he be honored enough to win the Presidency.

Here's a good example of a news LEAK:

Leaked Memo…..

It’s being reported that a memo from the Barack Obama campaign has been leaked.  It supposedly lists some of Obama’s possible cabinet members, should he become president.

For Secretary of State: General Wesley Clark, Governor Bill Richardson or Senator Chris Dodd

For Secretary of Defense: Senator John Kerry, Senator Chuck Hagel or Senator Dick Lugar

For Secretary of Health: Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Evan Bayh

For Attorney General: Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald

That should get the media's attention away from the Republican's convention news.

Let’s talk about ambition Senator John McCain; yours to be exact.  

After coming home a celebrity from being a POW during the Vietnam War, your extramarital affairs caused you and your first wife to break up.  You chose to go after the money instead – Cindy Lou Hensley’s.  Her estate was estimated to be around 100 million dollars.  She was your last affair before divorcing your first wife, Carol.

You were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982.  You were then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2004.

Your were on the short-list for VP for George HW Bush and for Bob Dole.  In 1997 your were named by Times as one of the "25 Most Influential People in America"

It was reported that you the appearance of your 'Faith of My Fathers' seemed to have been timed to the unfolding Presidential campaign.

You ran for the Republican Party’s presidential nominee for president in 2000 but lost to George W. Bush after very abusive attacks were made against you by the Bush campaign.

Within two months you endorsed Bush and made appearances (hugging and kissing) with him during the general election campaign.

In 2004 you were once again named as a possible VP; but this time it was for the Democratic Party’s nominee, John Kerry - you didn't deny it till 'after' his campaign had lost.

Knowing you were going to run for President in 2007, and breaking from your 2001 and 2003 votes, you supported Bush’s tax cut extension in May of 2006 and an immigration bill hoping to gain the support of Latinos.

Ambition sir?  Your whole life’s been full of it as it continues to be today.  As former Governor and previous GOP candidate for president Mitt Romney says,

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 --

Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton's former White House chief of staff, was tasked by the Barack Obama campaign this summer with soothing ruffled feelings and helping Hillary Clinton loyalists to get over their sense of loss. It has been a demanding assignment.

"There is a sense of entitlement that almost seems to be inbred,",

that's been the problem from the very beginning with the Hillary Clinton campaign.

They 'assumed' she was going to be the winner, so they didn't run the campaign the way they should have and Barack Obama ran his almost perfectly.  He was prepared.  They were not.  They have 'assumed' since January 2000 when Bill Clinton stepped away from the White House that Hillary would win the White House back in either 2004 or 2008.  Even the Republican party 'assumed' this.

Barack Obama took the Democratic Party establishment and the Clintons' on and won.  They can't seem to comprehend that outcome.

Now that they've lost, it irks them to no end that a relatively 'unknown' was able to beat them.  They seem to think that Obama should have had the curiosity to step aside and allow Hillary to be crowned.  They are angry and want revenge.  

Sadly, they may get their way during the convention -- they may have gone behind the scenes and convinced enough supers that they should vote for Hillary - creating a surprise vote next week.

Can't you just see it?  Hillary is voted as the Dem's nominee by promising that she'd select Obama as her VP.

After seeing Obama trying to make amends by allowing her name to be on the roll call for historical purposes -- I'm afraid he may have made a grave mistake and swallowed the bait.