What a Mockery!

Tiller WTF?

2008-10-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

McCain during tonight's debate made mention of "a cool hand at the tiller." I decided to look more into tillers and naturally looked for the Wikipedia entry.

WTF?

McCain Mutters Expletive "Horse-shit" During Debate

2008-09-28T00:13:00.001-07:00

Skip to 1:00 and listen carefully:

If McCain Told the Truth: McCain's Cars

2008-09-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

Another wallpaper in the "If McCain Told the Truth" series...

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If McCain Told the Truth: Cheney = Palin

2008-09-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

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If McCain Told the Truth: Part 1 of a Series

2008-09-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

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McCain Met Spends his 70th Birthday with Movie Star and Con Man

2008-09-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin and the Banned Books in Wasilla: Brian Ross Investigates

2008-09-10T15:30:00.001-07:00

Four Years Ago

2008-09-05T23:06:00.001-07:00

Not much has changed. Still the same faces. Still the same message. Stay scared. Four more wars...

On Community Organizers

2008-09-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

Since Palin and the GOP have such contempt for community organizers (Obama first started out as one), it will be interesting to see if the Democrats latch on to their hypocritical charge that we are also elitist:

Reaction to the Palin Pick

2008-09-03T14:18:00.001-07:00

Shock and awe?

The VP Vetting Process: This is how it really went...

2008-09-03T14:14:00.001-07:00

James Carville on Palin: "She is Supremely Unqualified"

2008-09-02T12:54:00.001-07:00

Two points to note:

1) If McCain knew that Bristol Pail was pregnant, as he claims to have known, then he surely knew that this information would cause a lot of trauma to a young woman who doesn't deserve such attention.

2) According to the GOP, selling stuff on eBay seems to qualify you to be a heartbeat away from the president.

Ode to Bristol Palin: "I'm Keepin' the Baby"

2008-09-02T10:57:00.001-07:00

With all the buzz about Sarah Palin's teen daughter being pregnant, this song by Madonna seemed appropriate:

Sarah Palin's Donut Shop?

2008-09-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

Where VP Nominee Sarah Palin Worked Just Under 2 Years Ago

McCain Front Man Can't Name any Palin Foreign Policy Experience

2008-09-02T09:45:00.001-07:00

In typical GOP style, if you can't rebut the messsage, attack the messenger. Tucker Bounds can't name a single example of foreign policy or commander-in-chief experience for GOP VP pick Sarah Palin.

McCain Jumps off the Straight Talk Express

2008-09-02T09:11:00.001-07:00

McCain is starting to be carefully managed by his staff. They don't want him giving any more "straight talk" that may give more fodder to an already explosive campaign. This may be a double-edged sword though. He needs media attention, and the more he shys away from it, the more negative attention he'll get.

McCain Turns Sour on His Onetime Media `Base' as Election Nears - Yahoo! News

The longtime love affair between John McCain and what he once called his ``base'' -- the national news media -- is on the rocks.

As the relationship has deteriorated, McCain has stopped hosting his once-famous ``straight talk''get-togethers on his campaign plane. He also has abandoned regular press conferences.

Instead, he stops occasionally to read short written statements in front of cameras, like he did Aug. 31 in Jackson, Mississippi; then walks away from questions shouted by reporters.

Invitations for the press to visit the Straight Talk Express also have grown scarce. Local reporters are allowed the occasional visit, though journalists traveling with McCain no longer are invited to drop in. He hasn't held a news conference since Aug. 13.

Some of the campaign's new approach may coincide with the bigger role taken by Schmidt, who was close to Karl Rove, a former campaign manager and White House aide to President George W. Bush, known for keeping a tight grip on press access to his boss.

Sarah Palin Hire Lawyer in Trooper Gate

2008-09-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

This can only highlight Palin's unvetted status. Andrea Mitchell points out that the Palin pick has done exactly what the McCain campaign wanted, namely score political points with his base and raise money...

Chuck Todd on Palin BabyGate: "This is what happens when somebody isn't vetted"

2008-09-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

Obama on Palin's Family: They are off limits in my campaign

2008-09-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

A classy response that goes beyond politics, though I don't think the issue will go away in the eyes of the media, especially since McCain and Palin are running on the family values ticket:
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McCain Bombshell: Teen daughter of GOP VP pick is pregnant

2008-09-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

So much for family values. The fact that McCain knew about this goes to show how much time really went into this VP pick, given that he had 6 months to research his potential VP picks:

Teen daughter of GOP VP pick is pregnant - CNN.com

Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, is pregnant and will keep the baby and marry the baby's father, the Republican vice presidential candidate said Monday.

John McCain was aware of Bristol Palin's pregnancy before he chose her
mother for his running mate, a top adviser to the Republican
presidential candidate said.

John McCain "Taps" Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T15:01:00.001-07:00

The AP headline for John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin may be a bit ironic. Especially when you factor in John McCain's wandering eyes and penchant for affairs. After all, John McCain says, "She's exactly who I need."

The Average Joe Speaks out on Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T11:32:00.001-07:00

McCain thinks Americans are stupid. As this guy puts it, he thinks "one woman is the same as another.":

Sarah Palin: McCain's Final Sign of Desperation

2008-08-29T11:01:00.001-07:00

Take a close look at this photo from the McCain campaign site.

My first reaction to this was to laugh out loud. Why? Because Gov. Sarah Palin is McCain's last ditch effort to save his campaign. It is a true "hail mary" as the media is calling it, with McCain trying to fill in his wrinkly face and positions with someone who comes across as "fresh." While he is targeting Hillary fans with his pick for VP, the truth is that those who stood by HRC did it because of her established history, not just because she was a woman. And those who stood by her strictly for her gender wouldn't have voted for Obama anyway. So McCain gains nothing and has just undercut his own argument that Obama lacks experience to lead on day one and wouldn't be a good commander-in-chief.

John McCain's Latest Ad is the Epitome of "Fear and Smear"

2008-08-28T12:38:00.001-07:00

Want to know how desperate McCain has gone? Just look at this ad, featuring some graphic imagery and bloodshed not suitable for primetime TV. It's obvious that Rove is now driving McCain's campaign.

What's wrong with Michelle Obama? Answer: Nothing

2008-08-22T04:05:00.000-07:00

A great rebuttal to all those GOP talking points about "country-hating' Mrs. Obama:

What's wrong with Michelle Obama? on Yahoo! News

What is wrong with Michelle Obama?

Not a thing.

Too often, the media depict black women like me as gyrating hoochie mamas, someone's baby mama or dirty crack addicts.

Michelle Obama strikes a pose not seen enough: an accomplished, confident, proud black woman. (And get a load of those arms!)

That seems to scare some people.

OK, she slipped by suggesting she'd never really been proud of her country until her husband's candidacy took off. But the reaction went way over the top. Republicans tried to smack her down. Her husband's campaign aides wanted to perform the equivalent of a personality transplant.

It is said that people are most afraid of what they are least familiar with. And most people don't really know Michelle Obama. Like most politicians — and politicians' spouses — we know only what we read about her or see on TV.

But to be frightened by her, by the idea of her as first lady? That's just downright silly.

Seriously.

She was a darling of the media and campaign crowds when her husband, who calls her "my rock," started running for president. Barack Obama's advisers viewed her as his "secret weapon." In Iowa, aides started calling her "The Closer" because of her ability to win people over. After one speech in Muscatine, half of the mostly undecided crowd signed supporter cards on the way out.

But stumbles were inevitable.

In February, critics pounced when she said, "For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country." They suggested she was an angry, unpatriotic woman, ungrateful to the country that helped her out of the poverty of the South Side of Chicago.

She later said she had been trying to say how proud she was that so many people were engaging in the political process as a result of her husband's candidacy, and that she had always been proud of her country.

But what if, deep down inside somewhere, Michelle Obama really is angry.

What's wrong with a little anger?

Black women have a lot of reasons to feel that way, and she, especially, for some of the things that have been said about her and her husband.

Maybe this Princeton and Harvard-educated lawyer is angry about Fox News Channel calling her in an on-screen graphic, "Obama's baby mama."

She could be spitting mad about the rumor that there was a video of her railing against "whitey" from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. No video has surfaced; the campaign says that's because she never spoke there.

At one point, Obama told her critics to "lay off my wife."

But his campaign has hired Michelle Obama a new chief of staff whose responsibilities include helping to reintroduce this wife and mother of two in ways that advisers think will be less threatening to the masses.

Who's to say she isn't rightfully outraged about that, too?

"People aren't used to strong women," Michelle Obama said when her image came up as she played guest co-host on "The View," the ABC daytime talk show. That appearance was part of the image makeover, too.

America likes a certain type of first lady — the adoring, smiling, know-your-place-and-stay-in-it kind who stands beside her man, doesn't upstage him and won't dare show bare arms in public. Career political wives, not career women.

Race aside, what's happening with Michelle Obama may not be all that different from the way Hillary Rodham Clinton was treated when her husband ran for president in 1992. At the time a Yale-educated partner in a top Arkansas law firm, she was not a career political wife and became an instant target.

When one of Bill Clinton's campaign rivals accused the Arkansas governor of funneling money to his wife's firm, she pushed back, saying: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas." That crack didn't sit well with millions of mothers and political wives across the country who did just that. Hillary Clinton apologized, then was made to show a softer side.

Is that what Obama's campaign has in store for Michelle, too?

Don't get me wrong; I like soft. Who doesn't? It helps make us women, but it's just one facet of who we are. And Michelle Obama has shown plenty of "soft" already; go watch the family's much-talked about interview with "Access Hollywood," or read her recent interview with Ebony magazine.

But let's cut through the spin and pose this question: In the grand scheme of things, what does Michelle Obama REALLY have to be angry about?

From where I sit, not much.

Which is why attempts to paint her as an angry, fire-breathing sister are so laughable.

By all accounts, she has a great husband — who has made history and could make more if he is elected on Nov. 4 — two charming daughters, a power career as a hospital administrator, a million-dollar home in Chicago's Hyde Park and ... those biceps to die for.

She embodies the hopes and dreams of millions of black women, like me, who quietly have longed for the day when we'd see one of our own where Michelle Obama is now — this close (fingers pinched!) to measuring the White House for draperies and picking out a new china pattern.

She's also a role model for little girls everywhere (and some big ones, too), especially those of color, who have been beaten down by poverty, broken homes, failing schools, low self-esteem and every other obstacle life can put in their way.

"There's not a parent on planet Earth who wouldn't want a daughter like this," said Edythe Friley, 61, a retired teacher from Detroit who participated in a recent Associated Press-Yahoo News survey about attitudes toward the potential first ladies.

Think of those girls and how it could help them to see someone like Michelle Obama — strong, self-assured, devoted to family, triumphant over some of those same issues in her own life and possibly headed to the White House — and think to themselves, "Yes, I can."