In Which Dave Mustaine Sets Us All Straight

Before I post this, I just want to say that Barack Obama has class and grace.  Great big heaps of the stuff, because I cannot imagine how someone could ever grow to tolerate hearing such amazing lies about who they are.  To work so hard and do so much right, and have it dismissed and twisted and forgotten.

And now, the best and worst example of political ignorance I have seen in a long time, I present Dave Mustaine.

Dave Mustaine -- the lead singer of Megadeth -- believes Barack Obama"staged" the massacre in Aurora, CO in a sick, twisted plot to pass a gun ban. 

Mustaine made the comments on stage at an August 7 performance in Singapore ... when he told the crowd, "Back in my country, my president ... he's trying to pass a gun ban, so he's staging all of these murders, like the 'Fast And Furious' thing down at the border ... Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there ... and now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple."

Obviously, Mustaine is not an Obama fan ... and recently bashed the President during an interview with Alex Jones ... saying, "With all of the proof about his birth certificate being fake. And you see the signs in Kenya that say 'the birthplace of Barack Obama.' Hello?! C'mon, guys. How stupid are we right now?"

Now that he's cleared that up, I feel better.  Don't you?  And if you think that's bad, take in Pat Boone's pitiful attempt at looking hip.

I understand that people are going to have different opinions.  But let's try rooting them in fact, mmkay?

Romney Admits Obama Is The Most Powerful Being Ever

Because apparently Obama can take hard numbers and turn them into lies.  That's the reason Romney states when refusing to give his tax information.

"In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the failure of the president to reignite our economy," Romney told Robert Costa of National Review. "And I'm simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about."

How can Obama lie when facts are there for the proof?  What is he so afraid that Obama can distort or lie about?  Surely it isn't the numbers, the only thing that can't be spun or filtered through bullshit.  Numbers don't lie.

It's for our own good, see.  Mittens is so complicated it would cause us to suffer from neglect if he supplied those pesky numbers.  He's doing us a favor by withholding the information and we're fools for not seeing it.

Jackass times infinity, plus one dipped in chocolate and covered with jackass sprinkles.

This Is Personal

President Obama wrapped up his two-day tour of college campuses today at the University of Iowa, again calling on Congress to extend a low interest program for student loans.

"This is personal," Obama said while discussing the value of a college education. "This is the heart of who we are."

The president, who said he and wife Michelle just paid off their own student loans a mere eight years ago, also told a friendly crowd of students that "we've got to make college more affordable for more people."

Obama is working hard to bring young people on board.  He wants them to know that an education should be attainable, and not just for the top 10% of whatever dividing line that might prevent higher education.  It's not about money, it's about investing time and energy into being better people, and better citizens.  More education leads to better ideas, better worker, enlightened minds that hatch brilliant ideas.

He is also bringing a new generation into politics.  Young adults are impressionable, and by lending a sense of urgency that is relevant to them, Obama is bringing in young people who will likely take more of an interest in their country.  He isn't promising all of our dreams will come true, just that we should be able to access the tools to make them a reality.

And on the other side we have... Mitt Romney.  The rich boy who thinks it's snobbery for Obama to want education accessible to everyone who wants it.  The guy who thinks women are breeders whose medical choices are up for legislation.  The guy who says he's hip to women's needs because his wife says so.

Talk about no contest.

Stupidity Runs Rampant

The Anti-Defamation League wants an apology from Peoria's bishop following a recent homily comparing President Barack Obama's policies to those of despots Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.

During the message at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky contended social services for Catholics could be eliminated if Obama's directive to include contraceptives in health insurance continues. Jenky went on to compare the actions to past cultural wars against the Catholic Church.“

Clemenceau, nicknamed ‘the priest eater,’ tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century," Jenky said. "Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services and health care."

"In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama, with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path,” he said.

 

So let me see if I get this right.  Michele Bachmann makes a tar baby reference and there is little to no outrage from the right.  Then this jackass compares Obama to Hitler and Stalin because he wants to make sure women's prescriptions are treated the same as the fellas.  It's radical and pro-abortion to give women a choice about their bodies.

But Obama says he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and Mittens flips out because shit's getting real.

Is that really what we have here?  God help us, I think it is.

Hold Your Horses, Now

Gay rights organizations are criticizing President Obama for his refusal to sign an executive order forbidding federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Obama aides delivered the message to gay rights groups yesterday, saying they want Congress to pass an anti-discrimination law.

"Our organizers and activists are really angry about this," said Heather Cronk, managing director of a civil rights group called GetEqual. "It's really worrisome that the White House is not taking a stand on this."

Okay, the strategy makes sense.  Obama is about to campaign, so it's a good time to pressure and ask questions.  Everyone knows this is a hot button, with Republicans taking a loud stance against gay rights and Dems afraid to touch the subject in some cases.

But guys, give Obama the benefit of the doubt, and if you want to help the cause give him a bit of space.  If he wins a second term and has nothing to fear, I have zero doubt that he is going to put some stupidity in its place. To the utmost of his ability, he has already shown he is in favor of fair treatment and choice for people whenever possible.  By pushing the issue it could force him into arguments that could actually backfire.  Because let's face it, Obama is the best shot many groups have of representation.  Right now it makes sense for him to do his best to prepare for stage two.

After seeing how Republicans attacked him for every single decision he made, in some instances it is simply better that he play it safe.  He has shown no animosity or lack of respect for gays or women, so it's time for us to rally behind him and let him know we're there.  He may not be perfect, but he tries.  He's the best chance we have of climbing out of this mess.

Fark & Obama Team Up To Bring You Today's Lunchtime Treat

I love Fark.  I love Obama.  And thanks to them, I laughed and clapped at a young boy's success.



Showing his dedication to science, innovation and plain old curiosity, Obama has a young boy demonstrate his air cannon, firing a marshmallow to see the results at 30 psi. The boy keeps a remarkably straight face but struts at the end, pleased with the results and the recognition.

Obama To Address Gay & Lesbian Activists

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address Saturday to a gathering of gay and lesbian activists, a key constituency that hasn't always been receptive to the president's policies and style of leadership.

Supporters say Obama's accomplishments on gay rights issues have been substantial since he last headlined the annual National Dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, in 2009, including the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. However, his lack of support for gay marriage still stands out as a snub for many.

Obama currently supports same-sex civil unions, and has said his views on gay marriage are "evolving." He recently announced his support of the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Obama had his hands full, and he has done more good for this direction than any in history. It's not enough, but because he has had so much on his plate I'm pleased that he is giving this his consideration. I'm still awaiting reports of how it went, but I will follow up as soon as possible.

If I could give Obama a theme for 2012 it would be "Let Me Finish"... maybe he is finally getting around to this because it's time, maybe not doing any harm was the best he had at a time when his every word was twisted and used against him.  He still has to be careful about his words because this is such a sensitive subject, but I hope he comes out with a more receptive message.  Of course, compared to the GOP treatment of gays, he could hardly do worse for himself.

I think he deserves the praise for his actions and the benefit of the doubt because even if he's slow, he can't do everything right away.

A Little Soft, Indeed

"The way I think about it is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft and, you know, we didn't have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades. We need to get back on track."

-- President Obama arguing for his third stimulus package in an interview with NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando, Fla.

Well it's about time.  This is core Obama, the reason I respect the man so much.  Instead of saying what people want to hear, he's telling them the sometimes unpleasant truths.  He is talking to us like equals, like grown-ups.  He is telling us we're a bit off track and it's time we all turn this sinking ship around.  It may not be a popular message but it's the right one.  It's the way to bring us together and moving in the same direction.

We can't ask for change from government and continue on the path we are as citizens.  Our spoiled self-serving culture has to take a step back and learn to be lean and mean.  We come from a scrappy history full of independence and humble brilliance, and we have turned into an indulgent, shallow version of our former glory.  It is never easy or pleasant to call someone out on their BS, and he did so in a matter of fact and reasonable way.

Compared to the screeching insanity of the right nowadays, this is the contrast that portrays realistic stability. When some folks shake off the stupidity, when the witch burners and racists just push it too far, this type of plain talk will be refreshing.

Dreams Of A Moose Cut Loose

From the Well Duh department:


Washington (CNN) – As the start of the next presidential campaign nears, a new national poll suggests that President Barack Obama's tax-cut compromise with congressional Republicans did not hurt his standing among Democrats, while former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may be dropping in the eyes of Republicans.


To which I can only say hallelujah, there is a glimmer of hope for us, ladies and gentlemen.  Obama is miles from perfect, but he's accomplished a hell of a lot in his time in office.  Palin is a quacking, evil little troll whose popularity depends on spin doctors and controlled interviews.


And by God, some people can see the difference.

Still Crazy After All This Time

Via Yggy, WaPo columnist Rick Perlstein documents the history of the Wingnut throughout the decades:

In the early 1950s, Republicans referred to the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as "20 years of treason" and accused the men who led the fight against fascism of deliberately surrendering the free world to communism. Mainline Protestants published a new translation of the Bible in the 1950s that properly rendered the Greek as connoting a more ambiguous theological status for the Virgin Mary; right-wingers attributed that to, yes, the hand of Soviet agents. And Vice President Richard Nixon claimed that the new Republicans arriving in the White House "found in the files a blueprint for socializing America."

When John F. Kennedy entered the White House, his proposals to anchor America's nuclear defense in intercontinental ballistic missiles -- instead of long-range bombers -- and form closer ties with Eastern Bloc outliers such as Yugoslavia were taken as evidence that the young president was secretly disarming the United States. Thousands of delegates from 90 cities packed a National Indignation Convention in Dallas, a 1961 version of today's tea parties; a keynote speaker turned to the master of ceremonies after his introduction and remarked as the audience roared: "Tom Anderson here has turned moderate! All he wants to do is impeach [Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl] Warren. I'm for hanging him!"

Before the "black helicopters" of the 1990s, there were right-wingers claiming access to secret documents from the 1920s proving that the entire concept of a "civil rights movement" had been hatched in the Soviet Union; when the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act was introduced, one frequently read in the South that it would "enslave" whites. And back before there were Bolsheviks to blame, paranoids didn't lack for subversives -- anti-Catholic conspiracy theorists even had their own powerful political party in the 1840s and '50s.

The instigation is always the familiar litany: expansion of the commonweal to empower new communities, accommodation to internationalism, the heightened influence of cosmopolitans and the persecution complex of conservatives who can't stand losing an argument. My personal favorite? The federal government expanded mental health services in the Kennedy era, and one bill provided for a new facility in Alaska. One of the most widely listened-to right-wing radio programs in the country, hosted by a former FBI agent, had millions of Americans believing it was being built to intern political dissidents, just like in the Soviet Union.

So, crazier then, or crazier now? Actually, the similarities across decades are uncanny. When Adlai Stevenson spoke at a 1963 United Nations Day observance in Dallas, the Indignation forces thronged the hall, sweating and furious, shrieking down the speaker for the television cameras. Then, when Stevenson was walked to his limousine, a grimacing and wild-eyed lady thwacked him with a picket sign. Stevenson was baffled. "What's the matter, madam?" he asked. "What can I do for you?" The woman responded with self-righteous fury: "Well, if you don't know I can't help you."

And while Wingnuttery has been around for a very long time, the greater point Perlstein makes however is an excellent one: Democrats were able to beat back such stupidity before.

But in the age of the viral e-mail and 24-hour Village news cycle, liberalism is in mortal peril.

Liberals are right to be vigilant about manufactured outrage, and particularly about how the mainstream media can too easily become that outrage's entry into the political debate. For the tactic represented by those fake Nixon letters was a long-term success. Conservatives have become adept at playing the media for suckers, getting inside the heads of editors and reporters, haunting them with the thought that maybe they are out-of-touch cosmopolitans and that their duty as tribunes of the people's voices means they should treat Obama's creation of "death panels" as just another justiciable political claim. If 1963 were 2009, the woman who assaulted Adlai Stevenson would be getting time on cable news to explain herself. That, not the paranoia itself, makes our present moment uniquely disturbing.

It used to be different. You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air. The media didn't adjudicate the ever-present underbrush of American paranoia as a set of "conservative claims" to weigh, horse-race-style, against liberal claims. Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds.

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."

Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.

Sadly, those same leaders are now all but gone. They've been replaced by the Max Baucuses and Kent Conrads and Ben Nelsons and Blanche Lincolns of the world, men and women who are bought and paid for by their lobbyist masters, the only constituents that matter. Crossing them costs these people tens of millions of campaign dollars and their cushy Senate job as someone more willing to play the game is located and paid.

The health care debate, after all, is nothing more than a proxy fight between the drug companies and hospitals on one side and the insurance giants on the other, and so far the insurance companies are winning running away, through the power of the net and the "news". It was never about people actually getting sick and being able to afford coverage, after all.

That's just crazy talk. Can you imagine what would have happened to the Civil Rights Act of 1965 in 2009? Hell, as it is the Supreme Court keeps waiting for the test case to eliminate it altogether. Think about that.

Advancing The Debate

Via Balloon Juice, it's a Town Hall Blitz in Luffabo.

Here is the video of some of the nonsense that took place outside a fundraiser for Brian Higgins last night and it’s full of crazy. My favorite was the lady yelling at me (pretty much the entire time) about how “eugenics is killing old people”. Not that I needed too, but she insisted I look it up. So I did:

Eugentics is “the study of, or belief in, the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).” ^[2] Prominent in the late 19th century Progressive Era, eugenics became a core tenet of some of the policies behind Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

And as I tried to tell her, it has nothing to do with old people, but she wasn’t having it.

Good luck to Obama in Montana and Colorado, is all I have to say.

[UPDATE 4:50 PM] Fresh off the win (in her own mind) over Death Panels For Trig in the Senate version of the bill, Sister Sarah has decided that the entire rest of the health care bill will kill Trig and Grandma and everyone, so we should just cut that part out too.

She writes that the plan making its way through Congress will "inevitably" lead to health care rationing. Pointing to an essay co-written earlier this year by White House health care adviser Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel — the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — Palin claims the president wants to enact a rationing system that would "refuse to allocate medical resources to the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled who have less economic potential."

BLAH BLAH BLOOGITY SCARY BLACK MAN WILL KILL GRANDMA REZKO BILL AYERS!

The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee concludes her Facebook post by attacking the cost of health care reform, which she said will only deepen the country's debt and force the president to raise taxes. "Health care is without a doubt a complex and contentious issue, but health care reform should be a market oriented solution," she writes.

Market oriented. You know, like Alaska's state budget. No federal government spending there.

Zandar's Crystal Ball

I suppose it's prediction time for tomorrow.

It comes down to which models you believe in, the old 2004 turnout models, or the new 2008 turnout models. The new models are the ones showing Obama winning this by 8 points or so, a Clinton-Dole style victory that gives him 330-340 EVs or so (OH, FL, VA, CO, NM, NV) or if the turnout models are right, he scores a Democratic tidal wave that gives him a mind-melting 400+ Electoral Votes.

In this Blue Tsunami model, Obama takes GA, NC, MO, IN, and even AZ, MT and ND, giving him 406. It would be a complete meltdown of the GOP.

But the GOP insists that the 2008 turnout models are completely wrong, that low turnout favors the Republicans this year, high turnout favors the Dems, but extremely high turnout again favors the GOP because of the twin motivations of the media picking on Sarah Palin, and the press crowning Barack Obama beforehand.

The GOP "landslide" model works like this, basically, five groups of voters will be motivated to vote for the Republican ticket:

1. Disaffected Hillary Clinton voters, (PUMAs),
2. Centrist Democrats who think Obama's a Socialist (McSame/Blue Dog Dems),
3. White Voters who think Obama played the race card too often (Bradley Effectees),
4. Female Voters who think the Dems are sexist (Palinocrats)
5. Voters who have been convinced by the internet rumors swirling around Obama (Low-Infocrats)

And if enough of these voters show up, they will either counter Obama's ground game or simply overwhelm it. The polling outfits are all wrong, says this theory. The turnout percentages will be almost identical to 2004, and McSame will pull out victory in the tossup states (NC, FL, OH, CO, VA, MO, IN, AZ, NV) plus PA (in the narrow win scenario, McSame 281, Obama 257) and will actually go on to flip Minnesota, New Hampshire, and possibly even Wisconsin, giving the GOP a staggering victory.

They are especially counting on the defection of the PUMA voter and the Palinocrats to give them an unprecedented win. The model states that Obama's decision of Joe Biden over Hillary doomed him from the start.

It's crazy, I know. But it's certainly possible...people do win the lottery too.

So, the four outcomes are:

1. Obama total landslide (406-132)
2. Obama strong victory (340-198)
3. McSame squeaker (281-257, PA the decider)
4. McSame strong victory (310-228)

I'm betting on the second. I'm not ruling out the first or the third. The last one there is...not going to happen. I'm leaning towards the first however. The barrier between 1 and 2 there is not that much, frankly. If he holds on and takes PA and VA, the barrier falls if NC and GA go for Obama tomorrow night. If Obama scores either one of those it's going to be closer to scenario 1 (375+) than 2, if he gets both the national race could be over by 9 PM. Missouri and Indiana will tell the tale, if they too go Obama then he's looking at reaching 400 and #1 up there.

Likewise if PA falls, Obama is in serious trouble. You'll know McSame is on his way to victory should the Keystone state be the keystone and he holds on in NC and GA. Should he take VA too, it's going to be a very, very long night for the Obama campaign.

So, the states to watch tomorrow night are PA, NC, GA, and VA. Whoever takes 3 of 4 wins the election, because they will most likely go on to win both Florida and Ohio, and the Presidency.

Obama's Grandmother Passes Away

The woman who helped raise Obama has, sadly, herself succumbed to cancer.

"It is with great sadness that we announce that our grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died peacefully after a battle with cancer," Obama said in a joint statement with his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. "She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility."

Dunham helped raise Obama from the age of 10 while his mother was working in Indonesia, and Obama took an emotional 22-hour trip to Hawaii to visit her on October 23 and 24.

I recall losing my own grandmother in May, and my heart goes out to the man. No matter what America decides tomorrow, I know how he feels.

One Night In Cincy Makes A Hard Man Humble

Back from the rally, and it was amazing.

I don't know how many people were there but most of the stadium was full and the field level was full of people standing, local news call it at 27,000 and it was at least that if not 30k.

The podium was set up in the end zone. Cincy Mayor Mark Mallory was there, as was Ohio Governor Strickland. I had a chance to talk to some folks from nearby Hamilton Ohio, as well as an Arvin Meritor worker from my neck of KY, young white guy there with his wife. The man told me flat out he drove up here because he believes McSame is going to cost him his job. He has time to vote, turns out his hours have been cut to 3-4 days a week.

Obama himself was a very impressive public speaker. He's been to Cincy a couple of times actually, because the Obama folks believe Hamilton County could decide Ohio this year. I believe it.

They're going to vote on Tuesday. The guy, Brian, told me he had never voted before. He never cared enough to do so. Now he does.

It's going to be amazing.

If my brothers in NC are voting, one 27 and already cynical, one 32 and married for a year, neither one active in politics, neither one has bothered to vote before either just like Brian, then as Zandardad says, "If your brothers are voting Obama, he's going to win."

Indeed they are both for Obama. Hell, one of them stood in line for 4 hours to vote early.

We gotta run up the score, folks.

Rally Caps!

Off to tonight's Obama rally in Cincy.

Catch you later.

McSame Shows His Hand

Today on FOX News, McSame campaign manager Rick Davis revealed his strategy for winning on Wednesday: Taking Obama to court in every state that Mcsame doesn't win.

If the McCain campaign believes voter fraud from groups like ACORN tainted the result of Tuesday's election, it will resort to "legal remedies," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said.

Fox's Chris Wallace asked Davis the following: "But I just want to make it clear. You reserve the right, if you feel that something has gone down wrong in any state in the country, that you'll go to court."

Davis responded: "Absolutely. There's no question that we're going to monitor this election. We have the largest election day operation in the history of our party's activities to ensure that we have a fair and honest election."

Alluding to past election fraud, Wallace asked Davis if allegations of Republicans suppressing voters could create a "blizzard of lawsuits" that would prevent a decisive tally for weeks after Tuesday.

"I think on Wednesday morning you'll wake up and John McCain will be president elect," Davis said.

When Wallace questioned Davis about recent allegations that Republicans are preventing thousands of eligible voters from casting their vote, Davis said the fault lies with "liberal activist groups."

"What's happened is a bunch of liberal activist groups like ACORN and others... have taken it upon themselves to try and frame this election as anything but honest," Davis said.

The GOP has denounced the accusations of voter suppression as a "reckless strategy" of the Obama campaign, which has released fliers warning of the issue.

Davis pointed to the federal investigation underway against ACORN as an example of liberals, and not Republicans, being guilty of fraudulent election practices.

"In fact, if there's anything to look at, it's the manipulation of these voter rolls before the election that's caused so many problems," Davis said. "We're not going to stand for it."

Pay attention folks. The real battle for the Presidency will only partially be fought on Tuesday. The GOP still controls the courts.

The election will not be over on Wednesday. Should Obama actually come out ahead by anything less than a massive landslide, the GOP will sue, sue, sue.

They will try to paint Obama as illegitimate as possible. What Democrats SHOULD have done to Bush in 2000 will instead be done to Obama in 2008.

Stay tuned. This is just beginning. Should Obama win Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, I predict McSame lawsuits in all three states as well as Virginia, NC, and Colorado if they go blue.

These lawsuits will seek to disenfranchise millions upon millions of voters. I guarantee it. McSame will not roll over like Gore did in 2000. No way. No how. Obama must have cheated and we'll sue and sue and sue until the Supremes step in and decide this election again. Watch. It's coming.

I hope I'm wrong. I really, honestly hope to God, Goddess, Allah, Buddha, Sikkar the Lightbringer and the Flying Spaghetti Monster that I'm wrong and Obama's margin of victory just crushes McSame across the board in battleground state after battleground state.

So vote Tuesday by all means. We have to run up the scoreboard. Vote Monday if you can. But keep in mind Rick Davis has revealed his campaign's hand: John McSame's temperament will not allow him to lose without a violent and ugly fight, the result of which at the minimum will be to make Obama look as illegitimate as Bush 43 should have looked to the nation in January 2001. The wingnuts will not allow him to give up. And the whole rotten stinking kettle of fish may end up in front of the ultimate activist judge panel.

What does John McSame know that we don't know? What gives him that preternatural calmness and confidence? He knows the true battle begins Wednesday.

Does anyone here honestly believe the GOP will accept the complete and utter repudiation of their party without scorching the earth beneath the feet of America's political system into blackened glass?

Me either.

So vote. Get your friends to vote. Drive people to the polls. Do whatever you can. I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off to do just that, knock, hit the call centers for Ohio across the river, the 72 hour bombardment, whatever it takes. I'm reporting bright and early Monday morning here in Cincy.

Run up the scoreboard. Prove the mandate of the people beyond any shadow of a doubt. Pray that BooMan's predictions of the Great Realignment are true, and that everything breaks Obama's way in a blue tsunami that utterly crushes and drowns the GOP.

Because the alternative is going to be five of nine old people deciding that everything we did in the last twelve months didn't matter and that millions of our votes didn't count.

Once more into the breach, dear friends. We have a job to do. We have to fight over the next two days to make sure this is won Tuesday.

Because the GOP is planning to start the real fight on Wednesday.

VOTE.

Poll-nographic Images

Much has been made by the Right of the Gallup "traditional estimate" poll, made using past esitmates of turnout models (the so called "likely voters") as opposed to the other polls using current turnout models ("registered voters").

Gallup in fact has two polls, one likely voters, one registered voters. The McSame camp was giddy as a schoolgirl when the likely voter poll showed Obama's lead had narrowed from 7 points to just two points in three days, from October 24 (51-44%) to October 27th (49-47%).

The McSame camp and the wingnuts assured America that young people and minorities were simply not going to vote this year, that the turnout was going to follow more traditional models, and that John McCain would be able to pull out a close upset victory if not be ahead by the final weekend and go on to win. It was important because Obama had fallen below 50%, and McSame was within the margin of error. The McSame camp predicted that therefore this proved the race was in fact a tossup.

Smug and assured, they laughed at Obama's half-hour ad buy and said it would backfire, doing more harm than good. It would be Obama being "uppity and presumptuous" again, adressing the nation with a "crass infomercial".

And since October 27th, since Obama's half-hour "closing argument" ad buy on Wednesday night, they expected John McSame to be in control heading into the final weekend before Tuesday's election. The trends were clear, and they believed in the "likely voter" model.

But, there's one small detail they forgot to factor in, you see. The McSame campaign has been much been 100% WRONG about everything.

For you see, Obama is now leading the Gallup likely voter poll by ten points.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has taken the largest lead yet among likely voters against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the national Gallup poll released Saturday. Obama expanded his lead to ten percent from nine percent on Friday.

Obama's lead is a dramatic rise from the 49-47 percent margin that Gallup registered just four days ago.

Gallup added, "This is the first time since Gallup began estimating likely voters in early October that there is no difference between Gallup's two likely voter models. Obama's lead of 52% to 42% using Gallup's traditional estimate of likely voting criteria takes into account past voting as well as current intentions. Obama's identical lead using the expanded model takes into account only current voting intentions."

"Both of these likely voter estimates in turn are almost identical to Gallup's 52% to 41% registered voter estimate.

McSame had a chance if he stayed above 45 and Obama at 50. Now? Now he's in trouble. The dominoes are falling in the other direction. It greatly appears that Obama's ad buy may have in fact sealed the deal among undecided voters instead of hurting him.

We may have reached a tipping point here with less than 48 hours before polls open.

M Night Bipartisans' The Village

They're coming.

The Village Bipartisan Idiots.

They'll never leave Obama alone until he becomes one of them.

Their attack is already underway from people like Nebraska's Bob Kerrey.

I believe this is likely because Obama will surround himself with professionals, not ideologues or acolytes. An unprecedented number of patriotic, politically savvy and centrist men and women have been part of his campaign team - and are therefore likely to make up President Obama's governing team.

I believe this is likely because of who Obama is. Republicans have tried desperately to paint the man as a secret radical. But the imagery just doesn't connect; Americans see a man who is calm, respectful, considerate and careful. That is just what the doctor ordered for our politics.

Last, I believe this is likely because Obama understands that to succeed, he must make peace with John McCain just as he has done with Hillary Clinton. When this historic election concludes, I expect the two to sit down, without precondition, and negotiate an agenda of reform.

But that will only be the beginning. To build up the political capital for the kinds of changes needed in these difficult times, Obama will need to communicate the following to Congress, in no uncertain terms: The Democrats have not won a mandate for all their policies. Rather, the American people have resoundingly registered their frustration with a failed status quo, and the next President must chart a new, less partisan course.

Bob Kerrey is only the start of the Sensible Washington Establishment douchebaggery that will start in long and loud on November 5.

Everyone in the Village Idiot club, left, right, "sensible" center, will be saying how Obama now needs to immediately do whatever the hell the GOP wants to do as a "bi-partisan effort".

There will be a good two months of pressure for Obama to:

1. Keep as much of Bush's cabinet as possible, especially Robert Gates and Michael Mukasey, if not Condi Rice.
   
2. Drop all charges/pretense of charges/hints of pretenses of charges against Bush and quash any investigations.
   
3. Drop any notions of reversing controversial Bush policy at all: PATRIOT Act, Gitmo, torture, wiretapping, etc. Kerrey's already asking for this.
   
4. Show he "reaches across the aisle" by giving into more bad GOP legislation from the wingnuts.
   
5. Abandon progressives, period. Obama will be pressured to prove he's not a liberal, and will be advised to "distance himself from Pelosi/Reid".
   
6. Enact McSame's economic, health, and military plan rather than his own.
   
7. Escalate wars in Afghanistan and start one in Iran.

In other words, Obama will be told to be McSame, because he doesn't have a "mandate like Bush did." Even if the Democrats have 60 Senate seats, 275 or even 300 in the House, and Obama in the White House, it's not a mandate for change...it's a mandate to do the same exact f'ckin stuff for the last 8 years, got it?

Palinocrats

There's been a lot of talk this election season about Obamicans: pissed-off moderate Republican voters (mostly male) who are sick of Bush, sick of the wingnuttery, and sick of the GOP in general.

But there's always a flipside to everything, and to the Obamicans, their opposite number is the disaffected pro-life feminist who believes that the GOP putting Palin on the ticket and Hillary's loss of Obama is proof the Democrats have abandoned feminism...the Palinocrats like the Daily Beast's Wendy Button.

The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?

That’s not exactly the philosophy of a Democrat. Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.

But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?

As Digby says at the end of eviscerating Wendy Button here:

I suspect there's going to be a very lucrative niche opening up for these Palin Democrats with lots of wingnut welfare to go around.

Hell, I'll go one step further: The path Sarah Palin will have to take to the Oval Office in 2012 is by walking directly on the backs of people like this. They need each other, just like Bush and Rush did.

The GOP is already maneuvering for 2012. The sycophants and water carriers are already lining up for Obamabashing, The Industry.

As I've said before, the hatred for Clinton and Bush combined will be shockingly pale compared to the pure vehemence against Obama.

His honeymoon will be over before he is even sworn in.

Starting the Palinocrats tag now, and keeping an eye out for em. There will be more.

OBAMAVISION!

Enjoy. Pretty good stuff here, actually.