Why will he dial it down? Has he grown a conscience? Hardly. McCain will stop because it isn't having the desired effect. The whole purpose of going negative is to bring down your opponent's favorable ratings. You understand that negative campaigning will cause you to take a hit too, but your aim is to bring your opponent's rating even more. According the latest Research 2000 tracking polls, McCain's negative campaigning is simply not overpowering Obama's positive momentum. On 9/7, Obama's net favorable ratio was: Positive 23. Today, on 9/10, Obama's net favorable ratio has INCREASED to: Positive 26. On 9/7, McCain's net favorable ratio was: Negative 6. Today, on 9/10, McCain's net favorable ratio has DECREASED to: Negative 11. (Palin's net favorable is a horrendous Negative 18!!!) These are the numbers Team(?) McCain will crunch and will begin to dial the negative rhetoric down soon. cheers!

The country is on the brink of a financial crash the likes of which have not been seen since 1929. And, John McCain's response? Paint the only candidate in this race with a workable plan to extricate ourselves from this horrific mess as "too risky". McCain's tactic goes beyond nonsensical. Considering the gravity of the situation facing this country, McCain's tactics are felony stupid! It should be absolutely criminal for a Presidential candidate to be so audaciously out of touch as to think the American people's palpable fear about this economy can be so easily misdirected through yet another subject-changing act of legerdemain. Senator McCain, behind on points and laking any real ideas for America, for six weeks your campaign has been completely driven by gimmicks. Look John, (and, I know it's okay to call you by your first name because you have declared us friends no less than a thousand times) don't you get it? No one is going to fall for your fourth "Hail Mary" in as many weeks. Your first "Hail Mary" was thrown when you changed the subject on us with that cerebrally challenged arctic a-hole you call a running mate, Sarah, "the bridge to nowhere", Palin. C'mon John, be honest, Failin Palin is way over her head even trying to run Alaska; a State with about a third the population of San Antonio, Texas. When this election is over and the truth comes out about your playmate of the month, well, let's just say, can you spell R-E-C-A-L-L. I'm so happy to see so many of the "adults" in your own party have rejected your VP ploy for the gimmick it was. After running on the meme that experience matters, and that this is "no time for on the job training", one need seek no further proof of your true cynicism than your pick of Caribou Barbie. As you gleefully boast in that irritatingly grating old man rasp: "How 'bout that Sarah Palin, ehhh!" All I can say is: Yeah, John, how about her. Next, as the financial situation reached full crisis mode, your opponent offered to make a joint statement with you to quell the fears and restore a sense of calm to the American people. When you were given this opportunity to actually act in a responsible bi-partisan manner you opted instead, in a cravenly selfish act, to stab Barack in the back and in your second "Hail Mary" you announced your fake-suspension of your campaign to, by the way, torpedo any chance of the original rescue plan to be approved and then to increase the cost of the bailout by an additional 150 billion dollars! Of course, once the rescue plan had swollen from 3 pages to 451 pages - each page laden with pork, you could of distinguished yourself by voting against the Senate version of the bill since it had so many of those very same earmarks you rail against, but nope - being the coward that you are, and again, to the chagrin of free-market conservatives everywhere, you completely caved. How mavericky of you. In the second Presidential debate, you threw your third "Hail Mary" when you announced the Mother of all Socialist strategies... a $300 billion dollar retail buy-out of all the bad mortgages in America! It must have sounded so good in your room full of lobbyist advisers. A real twofer... you get to look like a man with original ideas - AND - the savior of the American economy. But, oops, after closer review, turns out your plan takes all the objectionable parts of TARP and makes them even worse by literally making all the greedy bankers whole while sticking the taxpayers with the bill. Way to go, John! And now John, here you are, being completely bankrupt of ideas that could actually persuade voters that you could be of any help to us all in our greatest hour of need since the Great Depression, and we get to witness you throw your fourth, and what I hope is your next to last, "Hail Mary". You say to us: "It's his fault, - "THAT ONE" - that black guy over there - see him? "That Hussein guy doesn't see American like you and me - he pals around with terrorists, it's all his fault - he is too risky!" John, after eight years of disastrous foreign and domestic policy brought about in no small way by your republican party, here's where we average American find ourselves - we are falling in a abyss whose bottom seems of indeterminable distance away. We are ready to be led. We want help. We are desperately looking for a lifeline as we see our retirement accounts being eviscerated, not in months, but in mere minutes. Years of accumulation representing a lifetime of work are just GONE in minutes, hours, days. You want us to forget our fear of the economy and instead refocus our fear on whether Barack Hussein Obama was more chummy with William Ayers than Barack has previously disclosed. Could you be more transparent, John? Is it even possible to be more shallow? Let me tell you something, Johnny, of the seven houses, this economy is so bad, as deplorable as were Ayers's actions, some forty long years ago, if it took William Ayers himself to get us out of this current mess - I WOULD GLADLY VOTE FOR WILLIAM AYERS. Let me put it another way Johnny, of the thirteen cars, at least Ayers is smart enough to be friends with Barack Obama and that makes Ayers way smarter than you - and therefore infinitely more capable than you of leading this country out of crisis. On November 4, I intend to do my part in moving this country in the right direction - away from the politics of fear and division. Fortunately for us, and despite your desire to so nominate him, William Ayers is not on the ballot - Obama is! I intend to do what I can to make a difference in this country by doing the most patriotic act that can be done by a civilian - I will vote. And, I will proudly cast my vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he has great ideas and he can lead us out of this mess. I don't care what his middle name is and I don't care what his friends were doing when he was eight years old. Barack is a remarkable young man - I don't fear him, I thank God for him. But, back to you, John. There are only 25 days left in your political life. You have to know by now that you are never going to be President. If you want to salvage what little of your own reputation that you have not personally destroyed, I invite you to throw your fifth, and hopefully final, "Hail Mary". Senator McCain, on October 15th, five days from now, you can walk across the stage of the third and final debate and raise Barack's hand and announce it is your intention to endorse Barack Obama as our next President of the United States! John, seriously, Barack is going to be President anyway so you might as well try to get some mileage from it. If you do the unexpected and endorse Barack, you not only do your part to move this country forward in its hour of greatest need, they'll be talking about you with respect in every future election cycle as the candidate who would rather lose an election than see his country go down in flames. Remember John, Country First! cheers!

... in a piece of clever marketing, I see they are releasing the movie "Get Smart" on Nov 4. Now that's an Election Day ad that writes itself.

Brave New Films has a new video entitled "John McCain's Rage is a National Security Concern": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAyK-enrF1g In the video, there are interviews with people, including many respected republicans, attesting to John McCain's volatile temper. While McCain's temper was not something new to me, until this morning, I was not aware of the extent of his lack of self control. Included in the video is an account of McCain's physical abuse of a woman, while in the Capital building. We have heard McCain supporters characterize his temper as simply examples of McCain's "passion". I don't think such equivocation is justified - nor should it be allowed. Such equivocation is a disservice to the American people because, if these witnessed accounts are true, I am positive my fellow Americans are not willing to gloss over such clearly dangerous anti-social behavior in the man we want speaking for us a united people - much less the man to whom we entrust with the safety of this nation. McCain was right when he says we need a leader with "a steady hand on the tiller". These witnessed accounts of McCain's inability to cope with his inner rage, at times of stress, deeply worry me, and I hope they worry you, too. Violence against women is a huge problem in this world. What kind of man is this to have his "finger on the button"? What does it say about us, as Americans, that we would even consider electing a man President who has demonstrated such an appalling lack of self control - a man who feels it is acceptable to "back hand" a woman simply because she wants to question his political positions? McCain's actions are outrageous and unacceptable. John McCain's rage and lack of self control must become part of our political discussion of who we want to elect to be the standard bearer of American values. America, we are better than this - this man is clearly unstable, and as such, is not fit to be a United States Senator, much less the President of these United States.

Sarah Palin is now the official Alpha Attack Dog of the McCain campaign. As we all know, it's nothing new for a VP to do the dirty (aka: mudslinging) work of the campaign while allowing the top of the ticket to remain (debatably) "less soiled".

However, for two days in a row, Cindy McCain, the candidate's spouse, has personally engaged in Obama bashing. As to the candidate himself... last night at the second presidential debate, sharing the stage with his opponent, when McCain could have forcefully, directly, and personally addressed any real concerns he might have with Obama's patriotism, McCain chickened out!

(good thing for McChicken that he always has a girlfriend or two to hide behind.)

cheers!

McCain claims several times: "I know how to fix this economy". Really? Two weeks ago, he didn't even know it was broken!

After doing his magic on today's polling data, Nate Silver, at FiveThirtyEight.com, now has Obama at almost a 9:1 favorite to be our 44th President of these United States!

Now that's
Change you can Believe In!

cheers!

Just out on Politico.com
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14302.html

If you study anagrams contained within the full name of McCain's VP selection, you can discover some interesting, dare I say, telling word combinations.

For instance, if you start with Sarah's full name:
"Sarah Louise Heath Palin"
and then, you take away the
"Sensual Hot Pie"
all you are left with is:
"Hah, A Liar!"

Conincidence? I think not!
Cheers!
http://obama4potus.blogspot.com/2008/10/palins-anagram.html