Live Things In You

First, read Obama’s words on diplomacy:

“Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, ‘We’re going to wipe you off the planet.’ And ultimately, that direct engagement led to a series of measures that helped prevent nuclear war and over time allowed the kind of opening that brought down the Berlin Wall.”

Now watch McCain’s new ad:

Egregious. Outrageous. This isn’t just twisting the truth — it’s lying.

One of the depressing things about the post-primary campaign is that there is no debate between Obama and the Left, which has left him scurrying to the center like a frightened puppydog. This clip is a refreshing antidote to that, and if I saw a bunch more like it, I might feel like contributing again.

Andrew Sullivan reflects on his own gay wedding — and offers this synopsis of the California Supreme Court’s verdict:

The individual citizen posited by the court is defined as prior to his or her sexual orientation. He or she exists as a person before he or she exists as straight or gay. And the right under discussion is defined as “the opportunity of an individual” to choose another “person” to “establish a family” in which reproduction and children are not necessary. And so the distinction between gay and straight is essentially abolished.

Churches may pick and choose for whom sacraments are appropriate — but a civil right is just that…a civil right.

The Christianists are up in arms, of course, putting forth Proposition 8 to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry and calling it “Armageddon.”

McCain’s speech on the Georgia Crisis may have leaned on Wikipedia for some of its factoids. Uh-oh…

I was one of the million cash cows Obama rode to primary victory, before promptly singing, “Goodnight and thank you, whoever” with his dealbreaker.

All part of the Democrats’ brilliant strategy of defeat, which Michael Moore outlines in the Guardian today. Renounce your previously held beliefs, Obama, then listen for…

…the sound of your supporters shuffling away in silence. Don’t worry, though - they won’t vote for McCain. They’ll just stop showing up at the campaign headquarters over on Maple Street. They’ll say they’re too busy to go on another three-hour door-to-door literature drop. They’ll still take a list of a hundred voters home to call and read the index card over the phone about “why you should vote for Obama” - but there won’t be much enthusiasm in their voice, and the voter on the other end of the line will hear that. After 15 or 20 calls, they’ll give up - after all, there’s dishes to do and a dog to walk. And on election day they’ll go do their duty and vote, but they will not be up at 6am driving around the city picking up strangers who need a ride to the polls.

Moore’s analysis of the 2006 election — and its aftermath — are dead on:

Well, in 2006, the Dems had a come-to-Jesus meeting with themselves and, under the leadership of Rahm Emanuel, won so many House seats, they just waltzed in and took the place over. What a great day that was, seeing Nancy Pelosi bang the gavel down to open Congress. And what was her first act? To declare that any discussion of the impeachment of George W Bush was verboten and no one was ever to bring it up again. And that was that. It sent a clear message to Bush that he could just keep doing what he’d been doing for the first six years. The result? That’s exactly what he did, with Congress authorising every war funding bill he sent to them. How did the American people respond? Congress’s approval rating sank lower than Bush’s.

MCain’s campaign continues to make Obama the issue — which wouldn’t be nearly so unacceptable if they at least attacked the real Obama and his policies, instead of creating a stream of lies.

Newsweek.com tallies McCain’s “misrepresentations” in his recent attack ad on taxes — or you can watch a three-minute dissection from the Obama campaign:

We’ve just gotten done with a president who lied us into war and torture. I’m not sure we need another one.

There’s still time to sign on at Accountability Now PAC for Today’s Money Bomb:

While McCain plasters the airwaves with what a man of the people he is — as opposed to Obama, that arugula-sniffing, Europe-trotting poseur — don’t forget the real story, summed up for us by Andrew Sullivan:

McCain was a child of immense privilege, a son and grandson of admirals, given a prized education at the Naval Academy which he threw away - a performance he now touts in his favor. He dumped his first wife in favor of a fantastically wealthy heiress. He has had more money for a longer time than Obama has ever dreamed of. Obama, meanwhile, grew up on food stamps, was reared by a single mother and grandparents and by dint of sheer talent and hard work got to be the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was given very little and made the most of it; McCain was given so much and began his life, as he concedes, by taking it all for granted.

A brilliant, if worrying, observation from Drew Westen:

There is a simple fact about elections that has eluded Democrats in every presidential campaign they have lost in the last 40 years: that as a candidate, you have to focus first and foremost not on a litany of “issues” but on four stories: the story you tell about yourself, the story your opponent is telling about himself, the story your opponent is telling about you, and the story you are telling about your opponent. Candidates who offer compelling stories in all four quadrants of this “message grid” win, and those who leave any of them to chance generally lose.

In case you’re not clear on why the McCain camp is so strenuously making Obama the issue…

A very simple piece in the Financial Times on the pathetic misdirections and outright lies of the McCain campaign.

How low can you go?

But there is no up side to a McCain vote, so there’s no issue to run on — except Obama.

A McCain presidency would just be four more years — and I’m not sure we could take it.

Obama’s betrayal on FISA was a real kick in the gut — and it jogged me out of my happy-go-lucky financial contributions to his campaign.

I’ll still vote for him — but he doesn’t have the backbone or the dependability for which I’d “hoped.”

There’s still time to sign on at Accountability Now PAC if, like me, you prefer your money to support the Constitution:

Andrew Sullivan issues a denial. I’m also shocked by gutterboy McCain. I thought that after the grotesque muck of the Hillaristas, McCain would be a breathe of fresh air. Instead, he smells like…incontinence.

McCain’s latest ad is the lowest, weirdest thing to hit American politics since I don’t know when. The Obama Anti-Christ message rises to the top like some crazed helium balloon. Even without that grotesquery, the clips are so ripped from context as to twist all meaning.

It’s sad to see McCain sink to this level, since I did like him back when Bush was spewing the “McCain has a black child” meme in 2000. Too bad the McCain camp can’t use that one against Barack!