MICHAEL O. ALLEN

Menu
Tag

Obama

His erstwhile friends

By HomepageNo Comments

I promise to tell the truth always about my intention and my beliefs.

Sen. John McCain, Republican presidential candidate

Some of my fellow bloggers and pundits (the redoubtable Andrew Sullivan, for instance, Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, and Time’s Joe Klein, to name just a few) had long labored under the illusion that John McCain was a principled, deeply moral politician.

As such, they have expressed disappointment at the disgusting extent his campaign is going to vilify Sen. Barack Obama with falsehoods and smears.

They beat their breasts in wails about how this man they trusted and respected had gone horribly off-track, jettisioned ideals they knew he had for the sake of political expediency. Andrew Sullivan’s latest can be read here.

McCain is not as pure as he was in 2000, the cry goes.

Me, I never had such illusions about McCain.  He isn’t virtuous now; he wasn’t then.

I’ve always seen him as a man born into a life of privilege who feels entitled to everything he’s been getting and not getting.

That’s why he sleep-walked through the Naval Academy, graduating 894th out of 899 cadets. That’s why he never took his flight training seriously, crashing four aircrafts before the fateful one that led to his five-year sojourn as a prisoner of war.

Why hasn’t anyone in the media demanded that McCain have his record as POW, including statements he made on behalf of the enemy, be declassified? Please, don’t talk to me of his heroism until his full record has been examined.

Why did McCain finally leave the Navy?

How about the family he abandoned for the younger, richer wife who financed his political career.

The reputed “straight talk,” the excessive confessions and quick contritions were borne out of the Charles Keating debacle, merely cloaks he learned to wear once he was exposed as a corrupt politician.

Once he knew he would be lauded for honesty by coming clean about being in bed with Keating, the savings and loans magnate who swindled his customers out of billions of dollars and left American taxpayers holding the bag, there was no turning back.

McCain himself confessed “straight talk” and contrition became his chief strategy for burnishing his reputation. McCain, who has copped to staying at Keating’s Bahamas vacation villa about 10 times, ran interference for Keating with regulators to make Keating’s little perfidy possible. He was astounded at how quickly he was forgiven after he confessed and immediately decided it would be his modus operandi from thereon.

He did not, however, resolve to get out of bed with gift-bearing lobbyists, or stear clear of situation that called his integrity into question. If anything, he got deeper in bed with lobbyists. There was one point this summer when he shed daily lobbyists who were his campaign officials.

He still has at least seven still in the employ of his campaign as we speak.

So, yeah, McCain did not have some Road to Damascus moment during this campaign when he had a choice and he made the wrong one. Even when he was pledging to run a clean and civil campaign, he never had any intention of living up to it.

Despite the fact that the tenor of his campaign were imposed by former Bush handlers and Karl Rove disciples, the McCain we are seeing now is the one who was always there. This is the campaign he always wanted because he knows it’s the only chance he has to win the presidency.

So, expect more of the same and, please, spare me the crocodile tears about the change that has come over McCain.

September 10, 2008
Love0

We should all be Republicans!

By HomepageNo Comments

Alright, calm down. Let me rephrase.

It just should not be possible that Republicans stand any ghost in heck of a chance of winning any office on Nov. 4, let alone the presidency of the United States.

Yet, here they are and here we are.

Sen. John McCain is buoyant, ascendant, barnstorming the nation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin beaming on his arm, both confident of a romp in November.

Sen. Barack Obama, meanwhile, is beginning to rue forgoing Federal financing for his political campaign. His message of change, after being brilliantly co-opted by McCain and Palin, sound shopworn.

Bill Clinton’s eight years in office, dogged every step of the way by rapacious Republicans, ended with the nation at peace, the economy robust and in surplus. Clinton handed off to George W. Bush a stable nation on sound economic footing. The question was what to do with the surplus.

George W. Bush, appointed President of the United States by a majority of Republicans on the United States Supreme Court, then proceeded to fritter away the nation’s good fortunes with unfunded tax cuts for the very rich (“the haves and have mores,” as Bush called them, “my base”).

As it turns out, Republicans have not been in power the last eight years, including controlling of all branches of government the first six. Both houses of the Congress acted as the lookout while the Bush administration violated every tenet of the Constitution of the United States, made short shrift of American rights and values, and undermined every national institution.

Didn’t our national legislature dote on this Republican administration as it slept at the switch while terrorists trained on American soil, hijacked American planes to attack Americans in America without anyone so much as raising a finger to stop them.

Exploitive RNC 9-11 Video

Then, when it turned out the men who attacked America were mostly from Saudi Arabia, this government, this administration mounted a Republican headwind to get approval from Congress to attack . . . Afghanistan, then Iraq.

No, it was not really Republicans who started these two costly wars, finishing neither, even as the Congress eschewed any oversight of the corruption and pillaging that took place by Republican functionaries and appointees on the ground in Iraq.

I would call it their mismanagement of the economy if the eventual outcome has not been what Republicans intended.

I would call it mismanagement what happened in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a major American city and American citizens literaly drowning as the world watched, without their government raising a finger to protect them, had it not been Republican blueprint of how government should function, which is not at all.

The list grows but not the outrage.

Because, it turns out, Republicans had not been in charge, did not do these things all these years. Sen. Obama was responsible for the high energy costs. Democrats were at fault for all these things.

And it’ll take a Republican, that maverick John McCain, and his moose-hunting sidekick, Sarah Palin, to set things right. McCain, the Charles Keating consort, and Palin, she of that welfare state, Alaska.

That’s my point. Republicans should have no leg to stand on, no argument to muster in the national debate on how make right what is wrong with our nation.

Wasn’t it Republicans who presided over the deterioration of the nation’s infrastructure, watched a major bridge collapse in Minnesota and then had the audacity to hold their national convention in that state, despite not raising a finger to fix that bridge?

So, you have to ask that old Harry S. Truman question:

“I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.”

Yet, here they are and here we are.

Which has led me to this ledge. If Republicans manage to win in November–and the polls show McCain-Palin either ahead or about even with Obama-Biden–then we should all join the Republican Party and change it from within.

Democrats, by losing an unloseable election, would have forfeited the right to be called a major political party.

September 9, 2008
Love0

Sarah Palin of Wasilla, Alaska

By HomepageNo Comments

Newsweek magazine, despite a generally laudatory profile of Sarah Palin, serves up some inconvenient facts to counter the myth that she and her state have been swathed in since her nomination:

Palin is not regarded as an introspective or intellectual type—not the sort who likes to mull the deepest nuances of every issue. In that sense, she’s the anti-Obama. While Barack Obama of Hawaii, Indonesia, Hawaii, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Cambridge, Mass., Chicago and now Washington has been on a well-chronicled lifelong search for his identity, Sarah Heath Palin seems just fine being a woman of Wasilla. Alaskans regard themselves as a breed apart—more rugged, self-reliant and free than other Americans. Palin shares that sense of exceptionalism. But the myth is contradicted by some inconvenient facts. Only 1 percent of the state’s land is in private hands, and the economy is dependent on oil and other natural resources controlled by the federal government or Big Oil. As a result, nearly 50 years after statehood, Alaska remains deeply dependent on the federal government for support. Social ills are rampant. The state’s levels of drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence and child abuse are above average or among the highest in the country.

September 9, 2008
Love0

Bouncing Alone

By HomepageNo Comments

Mark Blumenthal of Pollster.com makes a keen observation in his discussion of Sen. McCain’s post-convention bounce: “[W]e should remember that the Republican convention dominated the news on Friday and, to a lesser extent, continued to do so for much of the weekend.” He cautions against drawing conclusions too quickly.

My question is this: “Why did the Obama campaign let the Republican convention dominate the news all weekend?” Is this more rope-a-dope or just dope?

Obama could have taken some of the focus off of McPalin in any number of ways — a big endorsement, a major new policy proposal, a great photo-op, etc. Instead, we got nothing, and McPalin was left to bounce all alone all weekend long. It’s political malpractice.

But this morning, there’s some good news. The Obama campaign may be calling in the cavalry. This comes not a moment too soon. But I’m afraid that it may be about four days too late.

Cross-posted from Facebook

September 9, 2008
Love0

Republicans in Minnesota, a revisit

By HomepageNo Comments

My friend, Chiara, sent me this note on Thursday, the final day of the Republican National Convention. I managed to miss the note and I’m offering it now for your consideration.

Last night, my sister-in-law, Joyce, a nurse, mother of three, and grandmother of many, wrote to a number of us in the family to express her views about the presidential election.  Joyce focused on an aspect of a potential  and unthinkable Republican victory that I think few of us — certainly not I — have considered at any length.  I believe Joyce’s take on a McCain/Palin administration is worthy of contemplation and so I’d like to share with you the note she sent to us from Santa Rosa last night, at the conclusion of the Republican National Convention.

Yes, we can.

Chiara

Dear Kim, Tami, Erik, Steven, Deena, Todd, Chiara, Lucia, Kathleen and Eddie

As most of you know I am very pro Obama.  I had the opportunity to watch all major speeches for the Democratic convention and now I’m giving equal time to the Republicans.  Two very different takes on patriotism.  I was heartened by Obama, Biden, and Michelle Obama.  This week, I watched John McCain become animated over his sudden secret weapon, Sarah Palin.  I listened to the speeches last night and heard similar slurs in each one, obviously written by the same team. No lies told, but less than the truth said.  The crowd went wild. There are lots more at home who believe and will vote.

Tonight, after listening to Cindy McCain’s profile (she has been an international relief worker!!) and her well delivered speech following Sarah Palin’s rousing rendition of the republican working super mom last night, I know big work must be done if the White House is to stay in the hands of the party that I believe is more fair and balanced.

But my greatest fear is that, if the McCain/Palin ticket wins, my grandsons, Jeff, Brennan, Justin A and Justin C will be registering for the draft before the end of 2009.  Devin won’t be far behind. There are simply not enough volunteer bodies to fill the battle needs in the many places our hawk leaders feel we should go.  I was a fierce mother against the war in Vietnam when Steven was a child and I can do it again.  And be even more involved this time because watching my grandsons go off to war for oil and power doesn’t feel patriotic to me.

I’m calling the local democratic party headquarters tomorrow.  I will volunteer however they need me because I now have the time to go with my passion that the charismatic folks running on the republican ticket are defeated in Nov.

John McCain just finished the most compelling speech I’ve ever heard from him.  Almost, but not quite eloquent.  That the crowd is going wild is an indication of what’s happening in front of millions of American TVs.  Scary.

Oh woe, we have lots of work to do.  Both parties want change in Washington, but only one party wants to escalate war in several world regions.

Going forward, I’ll keep the grandson faces in front of me to remember why the war mongers cannot win.

With love,

Mom, Joyce

September 8, 2008
Love0

Did Sarah Palin really say that?!?

By HomepageNo Comments

Gawd, I hope this isn’t true. There’s a rumor circulating around the internet today that Governor Palin used racist and sexist slurs to refer to Senators Obama and Clinton:

So Sambo beat the bitch.

The rumor is thinly sourced to a woman named “Lucille,” who allegedly overheard the governor make the statement at a diner in Alaska.

I don’t think it’s worth getting hysterical over a thinly sourced rumor, but I do think that this particular rumor is serious enough that questions need to be asked. Here’s hoping that some enterprising journalist tries to find Lucille and gets her story on the record if she exists.

The press also ought to ask the Governor for her side of the story. The problem is that the McCain camp is now saying that Palin might not be available for a press conference for about two weeks. Yikes.

So let’s put this one in the tickler file for September 21. In addition to asking specifically about Lucille’s allegation, I’d like to know what her views are on race more generally. Does anyone have any clue?

Cross-posted from Facebook.

September 7, 2008
Love0

Question

By HomepageNo Comments

Does it matter that Sen. John McCain, (R-AZ), is, at best, a spent force who mortgaged any ideals and principles he might have had in a Faustian bargain for the Republican Party nomination for president of the United States?

It was painful watching McCain last night and then listening to the empty suit media types prattle on about how well he did. All he has left to spout are the inanities and incoherent babble he spewed haltingly last night.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic Party nominee, needs to stick to the issues. Hit them hard. Stay on message for the next 60 days talking about issues that affect ordinary Americans and how to begin to repair the damage wrought by Pres. George W. Bush and his minions. Don’t engage these idiot Republicans. Talk to the American people about the future and how he would get the nation out of the morass the Republicans have created the past eight years.

The Republicans cannot, must not win on Nov. 4, 2008.

September 5, 2008
Love0

Another word on Obama in Denver

By HomepageNo Comments

Excerpt . . .:

Obama has been more moving at the lectern—at the Convention in Boston four years ago, when he relied mainly on the story of his modest, yet remarkable, multicultural upbringing; at the victory party after the breakthrough win in Iowa, last January—but he has never described himself and his political vision with more clarity. In order to win the votes of the unconvinced, he could not allow “change” to remain an airy mantra. (If anything, he risked the specificity and length of a Clintonian State of the Union address.) Obama was also newly and surprisingly direct in his assault on John McCain—whose policy differences with the Bush Administration have narrowed to the vanishing point—and even questioned his opponent’s “temperament and judgment.”

September 1, 2008
Love0

A master stroke

By HomepageNo Comments

Let’s give the McCain campaign credit for one thing: They sure know how to steal the Democrats’ thunder.

Democrats dominated the nation’s attention this week with their convention, culminating with their historic affirmation of Barack Obama as the first African-American to nominated for president by a major political party. Sen. Obama punctuated that with what has been generally hailed as a successful acceptance speech in front of some 80,000 rapturous supporters in Denver last night.

It was, in short, a very good week for Democrats.

The Republicans, who hold their convention next week, have detonated a political bombshell that will sweep away attention from Democrats and undercut some of the historic nature of Obama’s ascent with their pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate. More than the obvious ploy of picking a woman in hope of stealing some of the still miffed supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, it is the attention-grabbing nature of the pick that is astounding.

I am not saying that Gov. Palin is either qualified to be president, or that she is a good pick for Sen. John McCain. I am saying that for today, at least, she helps Republicans shift attention for the Democratic ticket.

The incredible thing is that Palin exposes a significant weakness in the Democratic ticket. McCain’s pick of Palin shows now that Obama was not wise to pick Joe Biden as his running mate. Those disaffected Hillary voters can now vote for the McCain-Palin ticket in some good conscience. The Republicans found a woman who was good enough when Democrats couldn’t. I’m not saying Obama should have picked Hillary. But she is not the only woman in the country.

By not picking Kathleen Sebelius or any of the number of qualified women around this nation, Obama left the door open for McCain to make this play.

Some of abhorrently sexist manner in which Hillary was treated during the primaries and caucuses, especially by the media, has pissed off a sizeable number of her supporters.

That Palin is a conservative Christian who is anti-choice and disagrees with Hillary on virtually every issue is not lost on me. Her supporters have a legitimate grievance that the Obama campaign did not pay enough attention to. Now Democrats may pay in November. I just know that women will now vote for the Republican tickets in some states in numbers significant enough to make a difference come Nov. 4.

August 29, 2008
Love0