Arizona Senator John McCain (official)

[ORD_Buckeye]

Just spent a few days this past week in a battleground state (not that there's too many of these left).

WOW! These ads are absolutely sickening. The one with the white baby in the crib while the screen eerily "blackens."

Thank God I'm not being inundated with this [censored] in Chicago!

[jimotis4heisman]

Originally Posted by ORD_Buckeye

Just spent a few days this past week in a battleground state (not that there's too many of these left).

WOW! These ads are absolutely sickening. The one with the white baby in the crib while the screen eerily "blackens."

Thank God I'm not being inundated with this [censored] in Chicago!

whose ad is that? i dont watch many commercials anymore...

[jimotis4heisman]

In Virginia, McCain Struggles To Hold the South for GOP - WSJ.com

article discussion mccains trouble in the traditional south(east).

...

Fueled by demographic shifts, rising doubts about the direction of the country, perceived missteps by Sen. McCain and a voter-registration push by the Obama campaign that has helped add a net of 310,000 new, mostly younger voters, the Democratic ticket increasingly appears positioned to win Virginia and make critical inroads across the South. A CNN/Time Inc. poll released Wednesday shows Sen. Obama has opened a nine-point lead on Sen. McCain in Virginia.
While much attention has focused on Midwestern battlegrounds such as Ohio, Sen. Obama's campaign has pressed for a deathblow below the Mason-Dixon line: In the week ended Oct. 4, Sen. Obama outspent Sen. McCain's campaign by 8-to-1 in North Carolina, 3-to-1 in Florida and 3-to-1 in Virginia

continued...

[cincibuck]

So in the last debate Mac comes out and says, "I'll tell you what the other guy won't. Folks we're in a deep mess. The financial crisis is bigger than our national budget, bigger than our capacity to pay for it. I'm telling you right now that the tax cuts in the Bush plan are gone if I'm president. I guarantee you that entitlement programs will be frozen and scrubbed to get rid of waste and corruption. I'm going to seal the borders and eliminate all federal funding currently received by undocumented aliens. I'm going to have to raise taxes to pay for the war on terror, and demand that we regulate the banking industry. I'm calling on you to help. We are down, but we're not out. We need to sacrifice and if we do we can win."

I'd stop and think. I don't know that it would cause me to vote Palin in as veep, but it would sure give me pause to consider.

[ORD_Buckeye]

Originally Posted by cincibuck

So in the last debate Mac comes out and says, "I'll tell you what the other guy won't. Folks we're in a deep mess. The financial crisis is bigger than our national budget, bigger than our capacity to pay for it. I'm telling you right now that the tax cuts in the Bush plan are gone if I'm president. I guarantee you that entitlement programs will be frozen and scrubbed to get rid of waste and corruption. I'm going to seal the borders and eliminate all federal funding currently received by undocumented aliens. I'm going to have to raise taxes to pay for the war on terror, and demand that we regulate the banking industry. I'm calling on you to help. We are down, but we're not out. We need to sacrifice and if we do we can win."

I'd stop and think. I don't know that it would cause me to vote Palin in as veep, but it would sure give me pause to consider.

That's the 2000 McCain. That guy left the building the minute he started traveling around the country hugging W on stage. He continued to drive the nails in the coffin of that McCain in the subsequent years as he reinvented himself as a religious/culture warrior and neo-con--culminating in giving the commencement address at Jerry Falwell's College. This Summer/Fall, we've seen the culmination of that transformation in his pandering to the basest, fringe elements in his party by selecting Palin and the contemptible Rovian character that his campaign has taken.

Today in the NYT, William Kristol attempted to blame everything on the "campaign." It's not the campaign that has led to this looming landslide for Obama; it's the candidate--and the ideology, policies and fringe elements that he has chosen to align himself with.

Just step back and think about it. This country is about to elect a black man president over a white, Republican war hero. There is far more underlying this historic event than merely some tactical campaign errors on the part of McCain's people..

[OH10]

Buckley's Son Voting for Obama

John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, ?We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.? This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget ?by the end of my first term.? Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

All this is genuinely saddening, and for the country is perhaps even tragic, for America ought, really, to be governed by men like John McCain?who have spent their entire lives in its service, even willing to give the last full measure of their devotion to it. If he goes out losing ugly, it will be beyond tragic, graffiti on a marble bust.

[cincibuck]

Just to clarify; I'm well aware of the current McCain, but when it's clear that your current campaign is going nowhere, backs against the wall and your party is desperate to keep hold of the White House, going back to the person you were in 2000 couldn't make things any worse.

Anyone in the Obama camp who thinks we're going to be able to cut taxes on anyone, let alone the middle class, AND pay for a bailout and a health plan is smoking wacky tabacky.

A public, voting in an era of high distrust of all of our institutions, might answer a call to sacrifice and hard work. I think its got a better shot at winning than continuing to try and undermine Barack's character.

One last note; all the studies I've seen show that black candidates poll 15% higher than their final voting count, so until I see Barack up by 20 I'm not going to see this as anything but a race to the wire.

[tibor75]

[stowfan]

There was something on the local Cleveland news about a Youtube video
from the McCain/ Palin rally in Strongsville. they would say what the content was, only that it was making national waves. Does anyone know anything about this video?

[generaladm]

Originally Posted by stowfan

There was something on the local Cleveland news about a Youtube video
from the McCain/ Palin rally in Strongsville. they would say what the content was, only that it was making national waves. Does anyone know anything about this video?

Check out post #924 in this thread.

[CookyPuss]

bump

I felt kind of bad seeing McSame's thread fall of the first page. If BP is any indication, his presidential hopes are doomed.

[jlb1705]

McCain tells Letterman, ‘I screwed up’ - Politics on TV - MSNBC.com

Sounds like a pretty rough time for Mac. I think it's amazing that an entertainer has done a better job than anybody in the press corps of getting him to answer tough, pointed questions about his actions and the things that are said by him and on his behalf.

Also, kudos to McCain for making up the appearance and taking it on the chin.

[jimotis4heisman]

DispatchPolitics : What's the real story: Health-care tax has silver lining Columbus Dispatch Politics
todays dispatch "the real story"

Regarding John McCain's plan to provide a tax credit for insurance, is it true that he would tax health-care benefits and it could cause people to be pushed out of health-care coverage? -- Jeannette Betancourt-Fontanet, Hilliard, medical technologist
In the flurry of ads, claims and counter-claims leading up to the Nov. 4 presidential election, a fixture of Democrat Barack Obama's charges against his Republican rival has been this: "John McCain wants to tax your health-care benefits!"
But is it true?
The answer: yes. McCain's health-care proposal, for the first time, would tax the value of health-care benefits provided by your employer. There's a wealth of information on his Web site ( JohnMcCain.com - McCain-Palin 2008) about health care, but almost nothing about his proposed new tax on benefits.
However, the silver lining in McCain's proposal is that he wants to give all adults a $2,500 tax credit and families a $5,000 tax credit. The credit, in the vast majority of cases, would erase the added cost of the new tax on employer-paid benefits, experts say.
About 70 percent of Americans obtain health-care coverage through their employer. Those benefits are now excluded from income for tax purposes. The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation calculates that the exclusion costs the federal government $212 billion annually in revenue.
So if McCain is elected, will the tax part of his health-care plan hit Ohioans in the wallet?
Again, the answer is "yes," but only for a few.
Individuals and families in the lower tax brackets would not see their taxes increase and probably would have money left over. Likewise for those in the middle tax brackets.
However, those in the higher tax brackets and those who have what McCain described in Wednesday's debate as "gold-plated" policies with greatly expanded or specialty coverage would pay more in taxes, the McCain campaign acknowledges.
People who buy their own insurance would benefit the most because they have no employer benefits to be taxed and will receive the tax credit like everyone else.
An example cited recently by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and expert on taxes:
A family in the 25 percent tax bracket who receives $12,000 annually in employer-paid health-care benefits would pay $3,000 under McCain's new tax plan. However, the family would get a $5,000 credit, leaving them with a $2,000 tax cut.

continued...

[OSUsushichic]

This one's for DaytonBuck, since he thinks that Obama pals around with terrorists...

The McCain campaign's Bill Ayers? - By A.L. Bardach - Slate Magazine

[Tresselbeliever]

McCain is getting back into it in the polls, now leading by 2 percentage points in FL according to SurveyUSA. Notice that Palin has been sidelined for now.