In The Hill today there is article about how Obama is using his lead in the polls to push through an economic recovery package targeted toward the middle-class.

Details on the Obama plan and its proposed effects is in today's NY Times.  As you can see, Obama's plan spreads the benefits over a much larger segment of the population.  Whether there is enough political will in Congress to pass his program before election day remains to be seen.

A few weeks ago, Newsmax published a story claiming that Obama's law school tuition was bankrolled by a "radical Black Muslim" with connections to the Saudi royal family.  Here is an excerpt:

The allegations first surfaced in late March, when former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton told a New York cable channel that a former business partner who was "raising money" for Obama had approached him in 1988 to help Obama get into Harvard Law School.

In the interview, Sutton says he first heard of Obama about twenty years ago from Khalid Al-Mansour, a Black Muslim and Black Nationalist who was a "mentor" to the founders of the Black Panther party at the time the party was founded in the early 1960s.

Sutton described al-Mansour as adviser to "one of the world's richest men," Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Naturally this story has been picked up by FoxNews.  I hope the other media outlets and bloggers will investigate this story and find that it is based on thin evidence.  I would not be surprised if I see this subject broached at a Sarah Palin rally.  Perhaps McCain is holding this accusation in his back pocket for tonight's debate.

Last night Frontline did a great documentary on both Obama and McCain.  I think they did a great job telling Obama's story.  The part about his years at Harvard Law School is especially good.

I thought Jesse Jackson's "cut his nuts off" comment was insane.  Check out what Rev. Jackson said to the NY Post in reference to Obama's Mid-East policy:

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

Does Rev. Jackson even realize that he is talking to the NY Post (owned by NewsCorp) when giving these comments?  Most importnatly, does he understand the effect that this hateful rhetoric will have on Obama's campaign, given what has gone on the last few weeks?  The Obama campaign really has to addresss the isssue of Rev. Jackon's ill-advised comments. 

 

 

While ACORN has long been are target of right-wing ire, McCain in true "maverick style" has lent his support to the organization.  It's funny that he is now so far behind in the polls he levels the ridiculous charge of rampant voter fraud on the part of ACORN.  Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer of ACORN puts it best:

"It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans. Maybe it is out of desperation that Senator McCain has forgotten that he was for ACORN before he was against ACORN; he was for immigration reform before he was against immigration reform; and he was a maverick before he became erratic. We were thrilled to partner with him to help reform the outdated immigration laws in this country, and were pleased to work closely with him on this issue."

It's funny that McCain is challenging Obama to be forthright about his relationship with ACORN and McCain has yet to be forthright about his past support for ACORN and his other contradictions that have defined his career as a public servant.  If you want more details about McCain's other contradictions in detail read Cliff Schecter's book The Real McCain.

William F. Buckley Jr., a Obama supporter, "resigns" his column at National Review. I guess National Review want focus on empty smears instead of formulating ideas to support their failed ideology.

Stanley Kurtz in National Review Online connects Obama to a Black separatist group in Chicago:

The fact that Obama funded extremist Afrocentrists who shared Wright's anti-Americanism means that this is now a matter of public policy, and therefore an entirely legitimate issue in this campaign.

He goes on to say that this group proposed curriculum promotes independent Black state.  This ridiculous attempt to make Obama into the second coming of Huey Newton is truly beyond rational thought. 

What is so ridiculous is that what get lost in this crusade to link Obama to a 60s relic is the work that this group did.   No one talks about the fact that the grant they received helped improve education for at-risk students and that Chicago reforms that were funded by this grant served as model for other urban school reforms.  Nor do these smear merchants recognize that the benefactor, the late Walter Annhenberg, is a conservative Republican.  So the obvious question here is: If the board Obama and Ayers sat on funded programs that promote black separatism would the Annhenberg foundation support it?  Most grants of this size are subject to external review and if the grant were used to promote some dubious activity the funding would have been pulled and the board reprimanded.  Also this smear and others brings to light a more important question:

Why is un-American for someone to work with other African-American leaders to create a school that celebrates their culture and its patriotic for a Vice Presidential candidate to consort with the most right-wing separatist elements in our society (The Alaska Independence Party)?

Eugene Robinson's column in today's Washington Post highlights the hypocrisy that is the Republican party.  Over the last two generations Republicans have championed a government that governs least.  This despite the fact that Republicans have failed to ever live up to their ideology.  As John Gallbrith said in his recent book, The Predator State, conservatives have never believed in free markets unless it served their own political interests, which is bearing out given the current solutions to the economic crisis. In another book, How Conservatives Rule, Thomas Frank notes that conservatives have run under the deceptive banner of small government to dismantle the government to serve their own personal and political ends.  All this shows is that the Republican Band lacks any authenticity.

I have been waiting a long time for this.  For months TPM and other bloggers have exposed the connection between Todd Palin (and to a lesser extent Sarah Palin) connection to the Alaska Independence party.  In the Arizona Republic a columnist talks about how the McCain's ridiculous charge that Obama pals around with terrorists makes him unfit for the highest office open the campaign up to questions about Palin's dubious associations. 

This may force the mainstream press to ask Palin to explain why she remained associated with this dubious political party for as long as she and her husband did.  Also it may answer the question that many have been asking: is supporting a party that coordinates with other anti-government groups, sought the support of Iran, and wants to promote a Christian theocracy truly American?  Should we question John McCain fitness for office for choosing as his running mate someone who may be folksy but supports a party that advocates secession of Alaska?

While Gov. Palin is fomenting racial and ethnic hatred at her rallies, Russia has reared its ugly head in Alaska.  Its not to invade Alaska as Gov. Palin so eloquently stated in her interview with Katie Couric it was actually to talk to oil companies about the pipeline she brags so much about.  I guessed she missed her opportunity to show her broad knowledge of Russian politics.

One thing that I think that is missed in these Obama slurs at McCain/Palin rallies is how the McCain campaign and the mainstream media has not confronted the inherent anti-Muslim and Arab sentiment running rampant in our society.  Campbell Brown rightly challenges the media, the McCain campaign, and society at large to address Anti-Arab/Muslim sentiment.

John McCain is so erratic that The National Review is lavishing praise on the Frank-Dodd mortgage rescue bill.  I guess McCain is too busy launching race-baiting attacks to figure out that his "plan" will give a platinum parachute to Wall Street bankers.

An op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal ("The McCain Change") questioned McCain strategy of focusing so heveily on character and experience at the expense of the economy. Here is an excerpt: ...Mr. McCain will have to resist the temptation to fight this election mainly on character and experience. His own campaign manager suggested this week that this election will be about "character" more than issues. But that is a losing strategy in a year when the electorate is also looking for change at home, especially a stronger economy and rising after-tax, after-inflation incomes. Mr. McCain can only win if his character advantage is applied to an agenda of genuine change. What is this change? For all of McCain talk about being a maverick and reformer he has yet on the campaign trail specifically lay out programs and policies that will address America's economic problems. Maybe Cindy McCain will sell her wardrobe on Ebay to help pay down the national debt.

E.J Dionne in today’s Washington Post has a good op-ed piece on how John McCain has stopped being the maverick that made him so popular eight years ago.

On top of longing for an idealized past that has never existed, during her speech tonight Cindy McCain mentioned that she was hockey mom like Gov. Palin.  I am from a middle class community and I never heard of any hockey, soccer, or baseball mom wearing $300,000 in clothing and accessories. So much for trying to identify with everyday Americans.