What would Lincoln do?

Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.

As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law, is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own, and his children's liberty.

Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and Let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars.

While ever a state of feeling, such as this, shall universally, or even, very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national freedom.

- Abraham Lincoln, January 27, 1838
Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois

I am bound to be true - Abraham Lincoln

You are young, and I am older; You are hopeful, I am not— Enjoy life, ere it grow colder— Pluck the roses ere they rot. - Abraham Lincoln

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. - Abraham Lincoln

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. - Abraham Lincoln

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. - Abraham Lincoln

I freely acknowledge myself the servant of the people, according to the bond of service - the United States Constitution; and that, as such, I am responsible to them. - Abraham Lincoln

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government. - Abraham Lincoln

The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. - Abraham Lincoln

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. - Abraham Lincoln

Cost of Iraq War

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Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. - Abraham Lincoln

Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. - Abraham Lincoln

Peace is a thing which a person must be willing to fight for. - Abraham Lincoln

I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. - Abraham Lincoln

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth. - Abraham Lincoln

While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years. - Abraham Lincoln

I will not support any candidate that promotes or condones torture. Period. This is America. We are not Nazis.

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. - Abraham Lincoln

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. - Abraham Lincoln

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Abraham Lincoln

There is more involved in this contest than is realized by every one. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. - Abraham Lincoln

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. - Abraham Lincoln

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. - Abraham Lincoln

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. - Abraham Lincoln

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. - Abraham Lincoln

I laugh because I must not cry. That is all. That is all. - Abraham Lincoln

I have borne a laborious, and, in some respects to myself, a painful part in the contest. Through all, I have neither assailed, nor wrestled with any part of the constitution. - Abraham Lincoln

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We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. - Abraham Lincoln

Exercise your citizen oversight and speak out!

It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong. - Abraham Lincoln

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way. - Abraham Lincoln

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. - Abraham Lincoln

When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That is my religion. - Abraham Lincoln

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. - Abraham Lincoln

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. - Abraham Lincoln

100 Awesome Blogs for History Junkies

The Abraham Lincoln Blog

The Civil War (Harper's Weekly archive)

Oxford University Press Blog

Robert Reich's Blog

The Baseline Scenario

Daily Kos

ePluribus Media

Progressive Historians

TomPaine.common Sense

Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. - Abraham Lincoln

AM in the Morning

Common Ground Collective

Beenie Drowned in her House

Bayou Farewell

Katrina Animal Rescue

I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. - Abraham Lincoln

I had been told I was on the road to hell, but I had no idea it was just a mile down the road with a dome on it. - Abraham Lincoln

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people. - Abraham Lincoln

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. - Abraham Lincoln

There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite. - Abraham Lincoln

Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. - Abraham Lincoln

He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help. - Abraham Lincoln

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. - Abraham Lincoln

I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless little creature to perish on the ground. - Abraham Lincoln (Reply to friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to return a fledgling to its nest.)

The Railsplitter

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. - Abraham Lincoln

Worse than traitors in arms are the men who pretend loyalty to the flag, feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the Nation, while patriotic blood is crimsoning the plains. . . and their countrymen moldering the dust. - Abraham Lincoln

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. - Abraham Lincoln

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. - Abraham Lincoln

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Abraham Lincoln

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. - Abraham Lincoln

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. - Abraham Lincoln

Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham Lincoln

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. - Abraham Lincoln

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. - Abraham Lincoln

A house divided against itself cannot stand. - Abraham Lincoln

I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the Declaration of Independence, that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. - Abraham Lincoln

The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. - Abraham Lincoln

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. - Abraham Lincoln

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. - Abraham Lincoln

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - Abraham Lincoln

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men - Abraham Lincoln

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Zydeco Obama!

Cajuns for Obama! (Boy, I wish I was eating that food right now!)

French lyrics:

Oui On Peut!
Oui on peut - sauver notre pays
Oui on peut - reprendre notres vies
Oui on peut - changer notre histoire
Oui on peut - vivre dans l'espoir
J'ai un rêve pour mon pays
Que on peut marcher ensemble
Et notre promesse de liberté
Peut vivre pour tout le monde
Pour faire cette grande vision
Il y a seulement juste un homme
Notre prochain président
Qui s'appelle Barack Obama
Pour quitter l'ignorance
Et arrêter les contes
Et faire vivre le grand pays
Que on voudrait pour nos enfants
Oui on peut - sauver notre pays
Oui on peut - reprendre notres vies
Oui on peut - changer notre histoire
Oui on peut - vivre dans l'espoir

Translation:

Yes We Can!
Yes we can - save our country
Yes we can - take back our lives
Yes we can - change history
I have a dream for my country
That we will all walk forward together
And that the promise of liberty
Will live for every one of us
To achieve this grand vision
There is only one man
He is our next President
And his name is Barack Obama
To leave ignorance behind
To stop the fairy tales
To bring life to the great nation
That we all want for our children
Yes we can - save our country
Yes we can - take back our lives
Yes we can - change history
Yes we can - live in hope

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Louisiana, music, Zydeco

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Election flashback

Labels: 2008 election

Friday, November 07, 2008

A Rudderless Government

When Barack Obama takes the helm of the national ship in January, he is going to have to bring in some cheerleaders for federal employees who have held on through the Bush Administration. According to the Washington Post, these people are seriously demoralized under the current administration:

In numerous agencies, federal civil servants complain that they have been thwarted for months or even years from doing the government jobs they were hired to do. Federal workers have told presidential transition leaders they feel rudderless, their morale impacted by the Bush administration's opposition to industry regulation, steep budget cuts or the departures many months ago of Bush political appointees. Though they fear publicly identifying themselves, numerous federal workers said in interviews that they are down, but also excited about new leadership.

"Many we talk to are weary, but cautiously optimistic that with this change in administrations they will get to do their job again," said Jeff Ruch, of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "In the environmental agencies we deal with, they weren't allowed to do their jobs because the Bush White House operated on a very centralized basis. The rule was, that which the White House doesn't want to hear shall not be said."

It is interesting to hear that the departments that suffered the most under the Bush regime were the regulatory agencies such as the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, the EPA, the FDA and the Consumer Protection and Safety Agency. We have definitely suffered from their lack of effectiveness as well.

Due to the Bush Administration's opposition to any regulation of corporate (greed,) hundreds of federally-employed scientists, researchers and lawyers created and studied regulations that sat collecting dust for 8 years. Meanwhile our food (and our pets' food) was contaminated, our toys are now full of lead, and our air and water protections have regressed back to levels not seen since the 1970s.

We need these federal agencies back. And it appears they need to be needed.

Although generally federal workers can expect to do their jobs without excessive presidential interference, the Bush Administration was different.

At EPA, a regional staffer who works on wetlands protection said the agency's political appointees have stalled and erected roadblocks on work to clean air, water and soil. Headquarters waited a year to advise staff on how to handle a Supreme Court decision that threw wetlands rules into doubt, then issued vague, "useless" guidance, he said.

"There's been an inability for people to do their jobs and do it well, " said the staffer, who asked to remain anonymous. "The administration's purpose has been to do nothing."

At Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), career scientists were told in 2001 by arriving Bush appointees to stop work on nearly completed regulations to reduce exposure to four well-documented workplace poisons. The new leadership explained that it wanted the office to focus on regulating other workplace hazards, but even then, little progress was made.

"It was discouraging for many employees to sit for so long," said Charles Gordon, a Labor Department career attorney who recently retired after 33 years overseeing OSHA matters. "They felt they weren't fully utilized." One veteran OSHA staffer who asked not to be named said her agency has now worked for 15 years on the same draft regulation, most recently on management-ordered revisions, without completion.

"Even though we can show bodies on the floor from this danger, nothing gets out the door," said the OSHA veteran, who ticked off a list of Ph.D.-carrying colleagues who retired to be more productive elsewhere. Some agencies are also suffering from double-digit percentage cuts in staff and resources, and the strain on federal workers has been noted in several independent reports. The staff of the Small Business Administration, for example, dropped from 2,975 to 2,166 since Bush took office. The volume of federal contracting has nearly doubled during that same period, from $207 billion in 2000 to $400 billion last year, while the number of staff monitoring contracts has declined.

President Elect Obama is going to inherit one hell of a mess January 20th. Fortunately he is already gearing up to tackle many fronts at once:

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.

In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.

Change is on the way at last. Maybe one of these days I can make true on my 'About me' description and simply write about Lincoln... at ease in the knowledge that our government is finally in the hands of a sane and responsible leader!

Labels: 2008 election, federal employees, Washington Post

Election night for the Obama family

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, campaign, Obama family

Spontaneous celebration in D.C. election night

I can't really tell where this is... the Washington Mall? The guy who filmed it didn't keep the camera very steady (shades of Blair Witch!) but its a great gauge of the excitement. Wow.

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, celebration, Washington D.C.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Harlem erupts with joy for Obama

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Harlem, New York City, NYC

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Indiana University-Bloomington celebrates

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University, IU

McCain's finest moment

McCain finally morphed back into himself (the self we once knew as our senator of Arizona) when he gave his concession speech last night. He appeared... strangely peaceful; even relieved. He called for national unity... and finally showed signs that he still dislikes the 'agents of intolerance' among us.

Bravo.

Labels: 2008 election, concession speech, John McCain, Senator John McCain

The world reacts

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, world reaction

Crowds celebrate outside the White House

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, celebration, White House

PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA

Redemption for a nation, unity for all!

The Dream

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed."

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice."

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

"I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with."

"With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true."

"And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California."

"But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring."

"And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

- Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hey Martin... Hey Jesse! The dream came true today!

Let freedom ring!

I cannot even express in a blog - there are no words - for what it means to see voters of Indiana flood in record numbers to the polls, and cast their ballots in favor of Barack Obama. This state hasn't turned blue since 1964. This is a traditionally red, conservative state -- the most reliably red of all of the red states in the nation. It also has a long dark history of Klan activity.

Today... we have overcome our racist past.

I can't help but notice that the Midwestern demarcation of the Mason-Dixon line is back. Indiana has rejoined the Union. Once Indiana farm boys proudly fought alongside Ohioans, men from Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan. We fought against slavery. The Underground Railroad ran right up through this state.

It makes my heart proud to see that the state of Lincoln's boyhood has once again remembered its proud pre-Klan history and embraced diversity and the highest democratic ideal of freedom for all. We are all Americans now. Together. And maybe soon we can once again be a nation undivided, healed and once again made whole. We are well on our way!

There will still be some pockets of racism, fear and hatred. But the majority of Americans - including Hoosiers - have responded to Barack Obama's message with a resounding "YES WE CAN." We have overcome our racist past. Surely anything is possible!

Labels: 2008 election, Abraham Lincoln, acceptance speech, Barack Obama, emancipation proclamation, history, Indiana, Jesse Jackson, KKK, Martin Luther King Jr., racism

Celebration on Pennsylvania Avenue, D.C.

Poor President Bush... doesn't he usually go to bed at 8 p.m.?

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, celebration, Washington D.C., White House

Monday, November 03, 2008

Tomorrow... stay the hell in line!

Because this is your time, your voice in our government of the people.

Don't let ANYONE - EVER - stop you from exercising your right to vote! If you have any problems, find a poll worker and demand to speak with a lawyer.

Labels: 2008 election, election day, election rigging, voter caging, voter suppression, voting

The ad that touched a nerve

We lost our business after 9/11. When we lost our business... we also lost our home. I suppose we started our 'Great Depression, pt. II' a little earlier than some, but we all arrived here together.

Time for a change.

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, campaign ad, economy, foreclosures

Sunday, November 02, 2008

McCain offers nothing but fear itself

Fliers found on windows in Southern Indiana

It appears that in the end - in the final stretch before election day - all John McCain and Sarah Palin have left to offer is fear.

This weekend they have launched a massive campaign to get out the 'fear' vote. Fear that Obama is a terrorist. Fear that he is a 'scary Muslim.' Fear that he isn't an American. Fear that he will raise taxes, turn the entire country into a communist gulag, fear that he 'isn't like us' and therefore will betray the interests of white, fearful Midwesterners and Southerners.

It is a last ditch campaign of horror designed to divide and conquer along racial/urban lines that stretch back to the Civil War.

McCain has nothing to offer that any sane voting American would want -- that is, if he was open and out front with the real ramifications of his Bush-like, Neocon platform. McCain's health care plan would leave most of us uninsured by our employers and begging on the street when our houses are foreclosed on due to unpaid health care bills.

McCain is running only on his 'experience' as an absentee senator... and racist fear.

So this year, this election, we Americans have an amazing choice before us. We can choose the campaign of unity and hope... or the campaign of fear. It borders on the biblical. For most of us, the choice is obvious. We hope that it is obvious even to those who are - at this moment - being barraged with 'be afraid!' robocalls, virulent hate-radio announcers and nasty windshield leaflets.

FDR (that 'socialist' president who saved America during the Great Depression) once said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." The same is true today. Let us hope that this is one lesson our grandparents did pass down to future generations of voting Americans.

May hope prevail.

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, FDR, fear mongering, hate-mongering, John McCain

The Daily Show: Community Organizers

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, community organizer, John Oliver, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Former Reagan Chief of staff endorses... Obama

This election campaign grows more surreal by the day.

Ronald Reagan's Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein admitted to CNN that he plans to vote for Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday:

Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official - Colin Powell - in his decision.

"Well let's put it this way - I think Colin Powell's decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama."

Powell served as national security advisor to Reagan during Duberstein's tenure as chief of staff.

Be fun if Nancy spoke up right about now...

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Ken Duberstein, Reagan Administration

Friday, October 31, 2008

The Palin albatross

McCain insiders are increasingly coming clean with their real assessment of Sarah Palin, and her (lack of) readiness to assume the presidency should the need ever arise.

One top McCain adviser has referred to Pain as a 'diva;' and another has openly called her a 'whack job.'

In the latest slam (of McCain's judgment, and of Palin herself) has now come from one of McCain's touted 'Secretary of State supporters,' former Republican Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger:

Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment's notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an "adequate" commander in chief.

"And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested," he added for good measure -- referring both to Palin's policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office.

Meanwhile McCain has been openly bragging about Eagleburger's endorsement (and so has Sarah Palin) in a campaign that grows stranger and more dissonant by the day.

In an interview on CNN, McCain downplayed the importance of Colin Powell's Palin criticism by accusing Powell of failing to grasp Palin's "political gravitas" (this quote from Huffington Post, but I find it hilarious.)

"I especially disagreed when he said the comments that he made about Governor Palin," McCain said. "And I hope that sometime General Powell will take time out of his busy schedule to meet with her. I know she'd be pleased to meet with him."

Perhaps Eagleburger, too, should sit in on that meeting.

Labels: 2008 election, Colin Powell, John McCain, Lawrence Eagleburger, Sarah Palin

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Economist endorses Barack Obama

So far Obama leads McCain in endorsements (and that includes conservative rags) 3-1. However in light of our current financial crisis, this particular conservative endorsement stands out from the crowd.

The Economist:

In terms of painting a brighter future for America and the world, Mr Obama has produced the more compelling and detailed portrait. He has campaigned with more style, intelligence and discipline than his opponent. Whether he can fulfil his immense potential remains to be seen. But Mr Obama deserves the presidency.

Read the entire endorsement here.

Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, endorsement, The Economist

Joe-the-plumber MIA

I see John is still doing those 'air quotes.' He must have missed Jon Stewart's 'air quote slapdown' earlier in the week.

Labels: 2008 election, air quotes, Joe the plumber, John McCain, Ohio, The Daily Show