Zandar's Thought Of the Day

Obama's going to need that $150 million plus whatever he gets down the stretch here. Every penny of it. Despite all the ads and the spending and the debate wins and the economy and the weaknesses of McSame/Palin/Preznitman/Nameless One...he still has to get 270 electoral votes, the GOP is pulling out all the sleaziest, most horrific garbage imaginable, and they have lost control over their Hatenstein's monster.

Everything I have seen so far has indicated to me that this may be the most turbulent two weeks America has seen in generations, and I have my doubts that this election will be over by November 4. Once again I believe this will go to the courts, I just don't know which state will be the margin, perhaps NC or Missouri or Ohio or Florida or even Colorado.

I just don't believe in the Obama getting 350-400 EV theory. It's going to be one state deciding this election again.

But which one?

Why Is It So Hard For The Democrats To Stop Cowering?

Digby once again brings us yet another example of Democrats pissing themselves with abject fear rather than realizing the American people are about to give them a complete mandate for real change.

On Stephanopoulos this morning:

Newt Gingrich: If Obama won and had a moderate House and a moderate Senate, he would probably be a moderate president. His temperament would lead him to be much more like Richard Daley than like Eeverend Wright. He's not gonna have that. he';s gonna have card check to take away your right to a secret ballot. He's going to have an effort to eliminate freedom of speech for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. He's going to have a congress that wants to raise taxes, that wants to increase government --- is he really going to veto and fight with Pelosi and Reid? ... As the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, here is what their promising their allies they're going to do.

Donna Brazile: Yeah, but they're not in office Mr. Speaker. Senator Obama wil inherit a 10 trillion dollar deficit and he's going to have to put things on the table that perhaps many of us would not like to see a Democratic president put on the table in terms of cutting back on spending, freezing hiring and making some real tough decisions. So, I think he will be constrained by the deficit and also by the fact that we're still in two major wars.

That's a relief. No need for anyone to worry that Obama isn't going to govern like a Republican. Except, you know, Republicans are really unpopular.

Gingrich is playing for 2010, here, preparing his troops to run against the already unpopular congress. He's calling Obama a wimp for being unable to stand up to his crazed, radical base. It's a natural move for the Republicans.

But there is no excuse for Brazile to fall into the rhetorical fetal position and help him. My God, we are in the final two weeks of a presidential campaign which is taking place in the middle of an economic crisis and is this the best she can do? He gave her the perfect opening in the world --- "the Republicans are more worried about a non-existent free speech threat to multi-millionaires like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity than they are about the real threat to average Americans financial security. Obama is going to be dealing with real problems of average people and will do what it takes to get this country back on the right track after the Republicans drove it off the rails over the last eight years."

After a generation of Democrats cringing from the mere sight of the whip hand, they have a chance to take this country in a brand new direction...but they are still so afraid of the Right Wing Noise machine that they're still afraid to even try to resist.

Not all of them are. Obama's core team stands as testament to the power of belief. But the rest of the Washington Democratic apparatus is terrified that Contract With America II is going to come for them and put another 12-year lock on the House door. It hasn't occured to them that rolling over like dogs was what cost them in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000. Capitulation got us Bush in the White House for 8 years after that, a good 14 years of conservative bullshit that culminated in catastrophe after catastrophe, and yet like Stockholm Syndrome the Village Dems are petrified that they will offend their righg-wing overlords.

It's time to decide who we keep and who we toss overboard in November, folks. Village idiots? They get jettisoned first. Digby's brilliant summation:

No wonder Gingrich looked like a very fat cat with a mouthful of yellow feathers when she said that. He's winning even as he's losing.

Stop fearing them. Start fighting them. Look at what Obama is doing. Let him DO it. Help him DO it.

Not Even He Deserves This

Now, I have my problems with Colin Powell, but not even Colin Powell deserves to be called a racist by El Rushbo of all people.

Rush Limbaugh said Colin Powell's decision to get behind Barack Obama appeared to be very much tied to Obama's status as the first African-American with a chance to become president.

"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race," Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail. "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."

As for Powell's statement of concern this morning about the sort of Supreme Court justices a President McCain might appoint, Limbaugh wrote: "I was also unaware of his dislike for John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia. I guess he also regrets Reagan and Bush making him a four-star [general] and secretary of state and appointing his son to head the FCC. Yes, let's hear it for transformational figures."

You'd better believe race is now front and center in this campaign for the GOP. They aren't even hiding it any more. Colin Powell is now Just Another Uppity Negro to them, and in a heartbeat he has gone from the poster boy for Big Tent Republicanism to a racist shill for Obama.

Not that Colin Powell doesn't deserve some time alone in the wildnerness with his sins when he DIDN'T stand up and do the right thing in 2002. Believe me, endorsing Obama doesn't begin to make up for his crimes.

But he's being burned at the stake for the wrong thing. Irony, Schadenfreude, call it what you will. I call it two wrongs don't make a right. Because I'm human, I do feel a bit sorry for the man.

Then I remember the fact he helped lie us into a war where we killed hundreds of thousands, and that was THIS war...not Vietnam. He still has to answer to the Gods Above And Below for My Lai, for example.

He's got nobody now. He has plenty of time for reflection, I'd imagine.

Perhaps Obama should offer him a position as Outreach Advisor To Black People Crazy Enough To Vote Republican. I know a few. If the GOP is willing to have El Rushbo crucify the man, no black person in the GOP is safe, or even above suspicion at this point.

But there you have it. We're now into full blown public racism territory here with 16 days to go.

[UPDATE] George Will equates Colin Powell to Al Sharpton, and basically accuses America of reverse racism.



Colin Powell is now as black as coal to the GOP. Absolution by public flogging by the right won't save him in my eyes, but again, that doesn't change the fact the GOP is now run and represented by racist, bigoted assholes.

In this case I think this is his way of receiving penance, scourging himself by way of public flogging by the right. Maybe he's trying to break with the administration and the GOP for good and this was the last straw.

But if that's the case, he's doing this for the benefit of Colin Powell, not Barack Obama. Which means he deserves no absolution.

You have to actually be sorry to be forgiven. He had years to make this break.

Too little. Far too late.

Another Link From Zandardad

Pop's a good man, sending me links to articles when he has time. Today's offering is a heads up on Andrew Sullivan's piece this morning on Sarah Palin, serial liar.

This is indeed odd. Here is Palin answering Hannity's question about her decision to accept the vice-presidency:

"It was a time of asking the girls to vote on it, anyway. And they voted unanimously, yes. Didn't bother asking my son because, you know, he's going to be off doing his thing anyway, so he wouldn't be so impacted by, at least, the campaign period here. So ask the girls what they thought and they're like, absolutely. Let's do this, mom."

But here's the official tick-tock of the announcement from McCain communications director Jill Hazelbaker on August 29:

"Later that morning, John McCain departed for Phoenix and Governor Palin departed with staff to Flagstaff, Arizona. Governor Palin, Kris Perry, Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter proceeded to the Manchester Inn and Conference Center in Middleton, Ohio. They were checked into the hotel as the Upton Family. While there, Governor Palin’s children, who had been told they were going to Ohio to celebrate their parents’ wedding anniversary, were told for the first time that their mother would be a nominee for Vice President of the United States of America."

In other words, Sarah Palin isn't telling the truth in a campaign where she's publicly calling Barack Obama a lying, terrorist pallin', un-American socialist.

And people wonder why McSame/Palin is losing this election.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

Which is big news or something.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama, citing the Democrat's "ability to inspire" and the "inclusive nature of his campaign."

"He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well," Powell said.

Powell, a retired U.S. general and a Republican, was once seen as a possible presidential candidate himself.

Powell said he questioned Sen. John McCain's judgment in picking Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate because he doesn't think she is ready to be president.

He also said he was disappointed with some of McCain's campaign tactics, such as bringing up Obama's ties to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

Powell served as secretary of state under President Bush from 2001 to 2005.

The notion of a Powell endorsement has been rumored for several months.

As a response, I'll post my comment from the Frog Pond last night on the rumor that Powell was indeed going to endorse Obama today:

It's not too late for Powell to join the human race.

Oh wait...after his "Saddam's mobile WMD labs" bullshit helped Dubya kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and THAT didn't disturb him enough to speak the truth, I don't give a damn about what he has to say unless it starts with "I believe my actions constituted being an accessory to one of the greatest war crimes in world history" and that is just a starting place.

He must then go from there. Then we can talk about what he has to say about the GOP as America's mainstream hate crime party.

Otherwise, fuck Colin Powell.

End.

Virginia, West Virginia, And Real Virginia

McSame spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer isn't even trying to hide the "Dems are anti-American" slant anymore, directly calling the red parts of southern Virginia the "Real Virginia" on MSNBC. The Democrats that moved in from DC, you know -- hippies and colored people --they're polluting the Commonwealth or something. Nancy then got busy rattling off other "real" states like Minnesota's iron range, rural Pennsylvania and Indiana. Rest of the country is full of traitors, apparently.



The MSNBC host gives her an out on the "Real Virginia" crack. She then steps in it even further by saying it's the "part of the state that's more Southern in nature". Northern Virginia is apparently just "Metro DC". Hell, DC doesn't even have a Senator. It's not a real state, they aren't real people, and they're going to put "That One" in office. You don't have to be a genius to hear the "real Virginia is more Southernin nature" dog whistle when a black man is running.

They're not even trying to use the outs and free passes the media is giving them anymore. That's how much they hate America for turning on the GOP...Democratic areas of the country and the people who live there just don't count as Real America anymore.

Hell, just install McSame as President and take the right to vote away from registered Democrats. They're not real Americans.

The $150 Million Man

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe announced this morning that with more than 600,000 new donors, the Obama team raised a staggering $150 million in September alone.

In a video to supporters, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said a record 632,000 new donors gave to the campaign, with the average contribution under $100. More than 3 million donors have given so far.

The Obama campaign raised $65 million in August.

Regardless of the stunning haul, Plouffe told supporters the campaign still needed more money because "of the slime that we're getting from the McCain campaign." Plouffe cited recent attack ads and robo calls in battleground states and said the campaign needed to have every resource to "fight back."

"Their campaign is going to descend even more into the gutter," he said.

Plouffe also said the campaign was expanding its reach to compete "aggressively" in West Virginia.

Tightening polls in Georgia and North Dakota meant more money and resources could be sent to those two states in the remaining days, he said.

"We can't afford to make any cuts. We have to execute everything we think is required to win," Plouffe said of their battleground strategy. "None of us can look back on the night of November 4 or the morning of November 5 and wished we had done something extra."

The video is here.

This is nothing short of mind-blowing. Donors gave nearly twice as much money in one month as McSame's entire campaign war chest. No wonder he's losing. The people are putting their cash where their hearts are, and their hearts are with Obama.